statism watch

I wonder how the people are feeling about being railroaded into joining the EU now.

Flashback: G20 warned unrest will sweep globe | Irish Police Protest And Call The Government A Criminal Accessory | British Secret Service, Army Alert on Bank Riots | UK: Police warn of ’summer of rage’ due to recession | Huge protest over Irish economy, pension clawback | IMF Chief Warns Of Riots In Response To Economic Crisis

Andy Winter, Sky News
May 11, 2010

Protesters have clashed with police as they tried to break through the gates of the Irish parliament during a march against bank bailouts.

Dozens of people broke away from the demonstration and ran at the gates of Leinster House, the parliament’s main building.

They wrestled with police who tried to force them back in a bid to secure the gate.

It has been reported that at least one man suffered a cut to his head during the scuffles as organisers appealed for calm.

The protest march had been arranged by the Right To Work Campaign.

The coalition of political parties, trade unions and community groups is opposed to the Irish government’s handling of the financial crisis.

They have argued against plans to inject billions of euros into the Republic of Ireland’s banks.

Police have said no arrests were made and the disturbance was brought under control “within minutes”.

Watch video from the protest below.

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Do you have anything to say about the G20? You don’t have to be on the labour-left, you don’t have to be a native Canadian, you just have to be a concerned citizen. StatismWatch has a forum for making contacts and for organizing here, so post your ideas!

Related: Toronto G20 protest area moved to Queens Park | Fighter jets buzz Toronto, Muskoka in G20 test runs | Downtown Toronto To Be Transformed Into Locked-Down Police State This Summer | All Toronto G20 protests will be directed to Trinity Bellwoods Park | Police State Canada 2010 and the G20 Summit | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Militarized police integrate with private security for G20 Toronto concourse drill | Small army to protect Toronto during G20 summit | Toronto braces for G20 logistics crunch | Hundreds of Toronto G20 delegates granted diplomatic immunity | Toronto G20 summit security to be ‘massive’ | RCMP needs 5,500 rooms during G20 summit | G20 ’sherpas’ meet with IMF, World Bank on Ottawa | Downtown Toronto to become a fortress for G20 summit | G8/G20: Gearing up for the biggest security event in Canadian history | Toronto braces for G20 disruption, Ottawa to pick up security tab | Convention centre confirmed as location for Toronto G20 summit | G20 security could strangle downtown | 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

Sarah Boesveld, The Globe and Mail
May 11, 2010

Native group plans to blockade highway, train tracks; labour group to march

As officials are busy mobilizing to protect Toronto’s downtown core during the G20 summit on June 26 and 27, protesters are gearing up for the weekend too.

Red Power United, a native rights movement in Canada, has announced a day of action on June 24, just as world leaders begin to descend on Toronto for the G20 and Huntsville, Ont., for the G8. The group plans to form a blockade across the Trans Canada Highway and the main Canadian Pacific Rail tracks in Ontario.

“This will allow us to show the world the issues that Native People are facing across Canada,” organizers wrote on Red Power’s website. “We’ll also send a message to the Canadian government that we are serious about fighting for our rights.

The Ontario Federation of Labour also plans to march the streets of Toronto, with a base camp at Queen’s Park, deploring the world leaders for allowing the economy to spiral downward during the recession.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Toronto residents to express their sentiments and it is vitally important they do so, given the desperate circumstances that millions of people are facing,” said OFL president Sid Ryan.

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Part of another disturbingly familiar pattern that’s emerging as state actors warehouse DNA. In the UK, they’ll just take your DNA for dropping an apple core and warehouse it in criminal databases indefinitely. If you’re innocent, they’re moving to keep it for 3 years, and that only after a public outcry. Make no mistake, the state wants that here too.

Related: Suit possible over baby DNA sent to military lab for national database | The government has your baby’s DNA | UK Police routinely arresting people to get DNA, inquiry claims | UK: Police ‘must purge innocent DNA’ | Newborn’s Blood Samples Raise Questions of Privacy | Study finds genetic discrimination by insurance firms | US: Ruling allowing Taser use to get DNA may be nation’s first | UK: Police ‘arrest innocent youths for their DNA’, officer claims | UK: Fury as Commons denied vote on DNA database | Australians refused insurance because of poor genes

Jane Armstrong, The Globe and Mail
May 11, 2010

Vancouver parent challenges unauthorized archiving of infant’s genetic blueprint

It’s a routine test conducted on newborns — a quick needle prick to the heel to test for a range of health disorders and diseases before an infant is discharged.

But the newborn screening procedures, which exist across North America and most of the developed world, have run afoul of privacy advocates because the genetic material collected from infants when blood is drawn is routinely used for other purposes, chiefly medical research.

Millions of infants’ blood samples — along with their names and birthdates — are stored on information cards in laboratories across Canada. What has riled civil libertarians and privacy advocates is that parents aren’t told that their babies’ genetic blueprint will be stored indefinitely, and perhaps used for research purposes.

Instead, parents are told the blood samples are crucial to test for disorders such as hypothyroidism, and more recently, cystic fibrosis.

In British Columbia, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association has helped launch a complaint with the province’s privacy commission on behalf of a Vancouver parent who said the practice is a breach of privacy, and wants all blood cards destroyed if the parents didn’t give consent for their storage.

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The basic relationship between gold and fiat money (from the Latin for fake) is this: when confidence in paper money goes down, the price of gold (valued in paper) appears to go up as a result. If confidence in paper money has priced it up against gold, gold appears to go down. It’s a reciprocal relationship, and the changing price of gold from our dollar-bound point of view is a matter of perspective. From the Austrian economics point of view, you’re better off just marking gold, an actual commodity, as the baseline and value paper money against it. Of course traders are fleeing the Euro and into gold, it’s a real currency that actually holds value, as opposed to the virtual currency system the bankers created under the Federal Reserve and Bretton Woods systems – a banking cartel’s clever plan to skim a percentage of  the value of the public’s labour off the top year after year. As European and international central banks continue to bail themselves out with trillions in taxpayer money, the nature of the Keynesian economic revolution is becoming clearer.

Related: Gold nears record high as stocks plunge | Manipulation of Gold Market by Financial Giants Exposed at CFTC Hearing | Davos 2010: George Soros warns gold is now the ‘ultimate bubble’, calls for IMF to handle climate fund | We’re running out of gold: miners | Gold rallies to record above $1,100 | Gold prices surge as India buys IMF reserves | Plentiful paper currency buffing gold’s shine | Gold continues record-breaking run | Gold price rises to all-time high | Fisk: Nations to hasten demise of dollar in new world order | IMF approves $13bn gold sale to boost lending fund | Gold regains $1,000 | Gold toys with $1000/oz | Industrial demand for silver sharpens bullish view | Global demand for gold investment soars 38% in past year | Bullion and Bandits: The Improbable Rise and Fall of E-Gold | Has the Mint’s gold vanished? | Bank crisis spawns new kind of gold rush | Gold Tops $1,000, First Time Since March as Recession Deepens | Manipulation Of Gold And Silver Prices Further Exposed | Analysts Predict Hyper-Inflation To Push Gold To $2000, Oil to $300 | Ottawa warns on gold-backed Web trades

Reuters
May 11, 2010

Bullion jumps nearly 3 per cent as markets continue to worry about euro zone debt contagion

Gold (GC-FT1,231.3011.000.90%) jumped nearly 3 per cent to an all-time high at above $1,230 (U.S.) an ounce Tuesday, as traders sought safety after a $1-trillion European rescue failed to put to rest fears of euro zone debt contagion.

After trading modestly higher in choppy trade earlier in the day, spot bullion prices kicked above their previous $1,226.10 peak set on Dec. 3 after U.S. stock markets turned negative at mid-afternoon, resuming a safe-haven rally that had threatened to stall with Monday’s brief revival of risk appetite.

Silver (SI-FT19.340.050.24%) also rose 4.5 per cent to a five-month peak, posting its biggest one-day percentage gain in six months, while platinum (PL-FT1,705.805.000.29%) and palladium (PA-FT532.05-0.15-0.03%) were little changed.

Having broken down the previous high, analysts began looking for the next target.

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A trillion dollars doesn’t ‘fizzle out’, however… if market confidence can’t be sustained after hyper doses of cash have been pumped into the system, there’s a serious chance of a new inflationary recession or depression. Britain’s already shown signs of inflation after the employment of its money creation, or ‘quantitative easing’ program.

Related: Ron Paul: Euro Bailout Will Lead To Currency Collapse | ‘Shock and awe’ euro rescue lifts global markets | Western Central Banks back Trillion Dollar European rescue plan, ECB to manage markets | Euro zone to regulate hedge funds, vows to fend off ‘wolf pack’ traders at all costs | Euro crisis goes global as leaders fail to stop the rot | Debt crisis: Panic on Wall Street, stonewalling in Europe | Greek rescue fears hit global stock markets | Greece swallows tough medicine in $150B bailout, more spending cuts announced | Greece erupts as men from IMF prepare to wield axe | Greece’s near bankruptcy won’t scuttle Canada-EU trade talks: minister | New austerity measures essential, says Greek PM | Greek debt crisis: Europe feels shockwaves as bailout falters | Standard & Poor’s downgrade Greek credit rating to junk status | Greek bailout not limited to €45bn, Flaherty warns | IMF to move quickly on Greek request for loan | Greek PM calls for EU bailout loans | Greek civil servants strike, challenge EU/IMF talks | Soros warns Europe of disintegration | Investors rush to sell Greek bonds | IMF struggles to conceal glee at Greek deal | Greece secures joint IMF/Eurozone bailout program | Greek PM threatens to go to IMF if no EU bailout | General strike cripples Greece as protesters clash with police | Athens erupts as Greek austerity plan passes | Greece unveils radical austerity package | Athen’s coffers to run dry in two weeks, more cracks appear in Eurozone | Man who broke the Bank of England, George Soros, ‘at centre of hedge funds plot to cash in on fall of the euro’ | Goldman role in Greek crisis probed | Greek workers stage general strike | How EU Countries Cooked Books Using Derivatives | Goldman Sachs Helped Greece Obscure Debt Through Currency Swaps | Collapse of the euro is ‘inevitable’: Bailing out the Greek economy futile, says French banking chief | Euro currency union shows strains | Stimulating our way into debt crises | EU leaders reach secret Greek bailout deal | Will Greece set off ‘global debt bomb’? | EU cautions Greece about its deficit | Could Greece drag down Europe? | ‘Significant chance’ of second financial crisis, warns World Economic Forum | A world awash in debt

Daniel Bases, Reuters
May 11, 2010

Euro falls as investors doubt massive plan to contain Europe’s debt crisis

A wave of investor skepticism over Europe’s $1 trillion rescue plan kept financial markets on edge on Tuesday, with U.S. stocks managing to rise but European shares lost ground and the euro resumed its fall.

Investors are concerned the efforts to backstop the euro zone currency is only a short-term fix rather than a long-term solution. Gold reached a five month high on safe-haven buying.

“Markets aren’t buying the story. It’s clear that the markets remain very concerned about the fiscal outlook for Europe,” said Mike Moran, senior currency strategist at Standard Chartered Bank in New York. “Clearly, the near-term outlook is one of skepticism for the euro.”

Gains in U.S. benchmark stock indexes were modest, adding to Monday’s gains, but banking shares stalled after surging on Monday. The S&P financial index shed 0.2 percent.

Biotechnology shares led the U.S. rally after Gilead Sciences unveiled a large stock-buyback program. Its shares rose 3.23 percent to $39.62.

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The Pentagon’s Pashtun pacification program continues. In other news, Pakistan is denying there’s any credible evidence to link the New York Times Square car bomber Shahzad to the Pakistani Taliban.The interesting twist to their denial, however, is that they’re talking about an entirely different Taliban group (Jaish-e-Mohammed) than the one the domestic US media is warning about (TTP). Made more interesting by the fact the group Pakistan is distancing itself from has a history of CIA involvement.

Related: CIA Drones No Longer Need a Name to Kill | Pakistan air strike ‘kills 71 civilians’ | WikiLeaks releases video of alleged U.S. helicopter attack on Reuters reporters | 1 in 3 Killed by U.S. Drone Attacks In Pakistan Are Civilians | Afghan ministers voice anger as civilians killed in Nato air strike | Five civilians killed in Nato rocket attack in Afghanistan | Suspected US drone ‘kills 12′ in Pakistan | U.S. prods Pakistan to expand offensive | Pakistan anti-Taliban offensive in South Waziristan ‘over’ | U.S. Military Joins CIA’s Drone War in Pakistan | US Air Force confirms new ‘Beast of Kandahar’ drone | German army chief resigns over Afghanistan air strike | Clinton confronted by Pakistanis over attacks by aerial drones | UN: Drone attacks may violate international law | US drone ’shot down over Somalia’ | Refugee flood reveals human cost of South Waziristan’s invisible war | ‘Taliban’ resist Pakistan onslaught | Pakistani troops assault ‘Taliban’ stronghold | Militants attack Pakistani cities | Pakistan launches air strikes before offensive | NATO pledges probe of deadly Afghan air strike; civilians killed | Pakistan remains silent as U.S. air attack kills 80 | Afghan Airstrike Video Goes Down the Memory Hole | Homing chips are CIA’s latest weapon against ‘al-Qaida’ targets hiding in Pakistan’s tribal belt | CIA: Our Drones are Killing Terrorists. Promise | US air strikes kill dozens of Afghan civilians | NATO denies air strike killed Afghan civilians | Don’t-ask-don’t-tell Policy: Pakistan and U.S. Have Tacit Deal On Airstrikes | Death toll climbs after U.S. air strike in Pakistan

The Associated Press
May 11, 2010

Missile strike on Taliban sanctuary in North Waziristan kills 14 alleged insurgents and is third since failed Times Square bomb

Up to 18 US missiles hit a Taliban sanctuary in Pakistan close to the Afghan border today, killing 14 alleged insurgents in the third such strike since a failed car bombing in New York drew fresh attention to the region, officials said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s foreign minister said the nation’s ties with the US have not suffered as a result of the bombing plot, which Washington has linked to militants with bases in the lawless border regions.

The number of missiles fired into North Waziristan was unusually high, reflecting multiple targets.

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The Smart Grid box’s data, directly or indirectly, is what bills for your new carbon tax are going to be based on. How do you feel about paying more for power on top of the recent imposition of the HST?

Related: UK energy smart meter roll-out is outlined | Google PowerMeter to track home energy usage in Toronto test drive | ‘Smart meters’ set to boost prices, track your power consumption by time of day in Toronto | Google to enter market for energy use tracking

CBC News
May 11, 2010

Ontario’s privacy commissioner is urging the Liberal government to ensure consumer privacy is a key part of its ongoing Smart Grid electricity plan.

The Smart Grid framework allows consumers to monitor their power use hourly, in real time, and in the future they’ll be able to track the power consumption of individual appliances.

But Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian worries that if privacy measures aren’t built into the system, power companies could easily obtain detailed data about a person’s habits.

Cavoukian says power suppliers will be able see what time you cook, when you shower or go to sleep, even if your house has an alarm system. That, she says, creates both privacy and security issues.

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So consensus is being found around the idea of releasing documents to a new committee of MPs from all parties. But we have one of those already – the House of Commons.

Related: Detainee documents controlled by a few top bureaucrats | Speaker orders Harper government to cough up Afghan detainee documents | Censors threaten detainee hearings | Military Police begin Afghan detainee torture investigative hearings, reporters barred | Tories table thousands more censored Afghan files | MacKay knew of Afghan detainee concerns: diplomat | Tories flood Ottawa with blacked-out documents in response to Afghan torture scandal | Opposition threatens contempt motion over Afghan torture documents | NDP tables torture-prevention bill | Ottawa anticipated Afghan torture allegations: memo | CSIS secretly interrogated Afghan prisoners | Canada wanted Afghan prisoners tortured: lawyer | Harper grilled over prorogation, Afghan detainee torture documents | MP threatens motion on Afghan documents | PM Harper downplays detainee torture scandal, prorogation | Claims troops mistreated prisoners unfounded: military police | Peter MacKay, Red Cross discussed detainees in 2006 | Canada’s troops investigated for Afghan abuse | Colvin disputes witnesses’ detainee testimony | Tories sabotage Afghan committee meeting | Canada ‘defended’ torturer | Ottawa won’t release Afghan torture documents | Top general’s Afghan detainee reversal hikes pressure for public inquiry | Richard Colvin’s Afghan torture memos reveal government concealed prisoner access issues | Torture claims unreliable, officials say, despite having found evidence of torture | MPs vote public inquiry into Afghan detainees, Tories ignore majority motion | Torture claims weren’t probed, official testified | Harper government changes tune on Afghan prisoner issue | Colvin’s testimony true: former Afghan MP | David Mulroney testifies war confused issue of torture | Hillier says he saw no credible reports of torture | Afghan torture emails reached MacKay’s office | Opposition wants documentation prior to government torture rebuttal, PM cries foul | Canadian officials discussed torture in 2006 | Canada shamed on Afghan prisoner torture | Canada ignored torture warnings: Diplomat | Military lawyer stonewalls on Afghan torture claims | Ottawa was warned Afghan detainees might be tortured | 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’

Karina Roman, CBC News
May 11, 2010

House of Commons Speaker Peter Milliken has agreed to a request from MPs for more time to reach a deal on releasing uncensored documents regarding the Afghan detainee controversy.

Conservative House Leader Jay Hill made the request on behalf of all the parties, shortly before question period Tuesday.

The parties asked for an extension until Friday at 1:30 p.m.

The Speaker agreed, saying he will “wait patiently.”

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