statism watch

Oh, it’s a sad state of affairs when the wee lads can’t even draw guns and swords in their school books anymore. One might hope this was some social engineer’s idea of a practical joke. But no. It’s a terror charge levied against some little autistic kid for a sketch. (Meanwhile, they appear to be studying ‘The Outsiders’.) Terror – it’s everywhere, man. Well, we’ve known all along that the Patriot Act and its various analogues throughout the West are really for use in controlling domestic populations – not people from the Middle East, that was just the first phase of your conditioning. Stay gold, Ponyboy.

Related: Georgia suffering backlash over media-staged Russian attack | Croissant causes downtown St. Petersburg terror evacuation | Vancouver police shut down several blocks, shopping mall to blow up fishing rod | Washington DC transit system holds anti-terror drills | Pie tossing is terrorism, MP says. Seriously. | Students Protest Cops In School After One Of Their Own Arrested | UK anti-terrorism strategy ’spies’ on innocent | DHS Video Portrays Average Americans As Terrorists | UK: G20 ‘Police’ Protest Troupe in Bras and Stockings Charged With Impersonating Police | American Citizens Attacked With Military Sound Cannons & Tear Gas At G20 | G20 protesters blasted by sonic cannon | Pentagon Caught Subverting Protest Group | DoD Training Manual Describes Protest As “Low-Level Terrorism” | UK schoolkids trained to inform on ‘extremist’ classmates by police DVD | ‘AmeriCorps’ Domestic Paramilitary Propaganda Ad | Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More | Secret Homeland Security Threat Assessment Labels Gun Owners Potential Terrorists | UK police maintain databank on thousands of protesters | UK: Civil servants attacked for using anti-terror laws to spy on public | US Urban Warfare Drills Linked To Coming Economic Rage | Army ‘Strategic Shock’ Report Says Troops May Be Needed To Quell U.S. Civil Unrest | GPS game blamed for Ottawa bomb scare | Protestors added to database of terror suspects | US Counterinsurgency Manual Leaked, Calls for False Flag Operations, Suspension of Human Rights | ‘Bombs’ in Ottawa this weekend are just for training | CSIS Spying on Natives, Olympic Dissidents | Art student released on bail after bomb hoax | Fascist America, in 10 easy steps

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. – A fourteen-year-old autistic boy is facing terrorist charges after a sketch he made in school.

The sketch shows two stick-figures. One of them is labeled ‘Me’ and is shown shooting a gun at another with a teacher’s name above it.

Karen Finn says that her son, 8th grader Shane Finn, doesn’t understand why he is in trouble. She says the boy is autistic and has the mental capacity of a 3rd grader.

Officials at Ridgeview Charter School say the student will face a tribunal and is being charged with making terrorist threats.

Finn says she plans to fight the charges.

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Well, Power Corporation has certainly become more vocal this week. Let’s go for a little recap of Power Corp in the news as well as a separate recap of the open information issue.

Related re Power Corp: Power Financial wary of Toronto-based securities regulation push | Elitist Confab in Montreal: ‘Adapting to a New World Order’ — Day 1 | Quebec pension fund managers boosted derivatives holdings despite warnings | Conflict questions raised over Flaherty’s budget panel | Flaherty appoints business leaders to economic advisory council | Bilderberg-connected Desmarais dynasty thinktank supports exporting Canada’s water | Secretive Bilderberg Group Reverses Policy, Releases Press Release and Attendance List

Related re Open News: Fox News Caught Aggregating Others Copyrighted Photographs… Something Murdoch Insists Is Illegal | Internet linking rights case to go before Supreme Court | CBC’s new licencing plan: Pay to Print, Email, and Blog, and outsource enforcement to American Copyright Digital Rights Bounty Hunters | Internet companies voice alarm over Italian copyright law | We’re no thieves — despite what Rupert Murdoch claims, says Google | Google allows publishers to limit free content | FOX News owner’s media empire could block Google searches entirely | Murdoch CEO Labels Bloggers “Political Extremists” | Reuters Steps Up; Says Linking, Excerpting, Sharing Are Good Things For The News | Associated Press Tries To DRM The News | Should linking be illegal? | Italian Judge: Blogs are Illegal

Rose Marowitz, The Canadian Press
May 13, 2010

Owner of La Presse says there may have to be changes in how information is distributed

The owners of Canada’s largest French-language broadsheet newspaper won’t rule out eventually charging readers to access its online publications as consumer preferences increasingly shift.

“We’re obviously monitoring everything and our people, I think, owe it to our employees to try and find ways to ensure La Presse survives and continues to be the important media that it has been for this province and indeed for the country,” André Desmarais, president and co-chief executive officer of Power Corp. of Canada (POW-T27.240.040.15%) told reporters Thursday.

Power Corp. subsidiary Gesca owns Montreal La Presse and several other French-language newspapers in Quebec and Ontario. While La Presse is the largest full-size French-language paper, its circulation is surpassed by the Quebecor Inc. (QBR.B-T34.29-1.89-5.22%)-owned tabloid Le Journal de Montreal.

Several newspaper publishers have mused about charging for access to their digital websites but few have successfully found ways to make money.

The parent company last year gave Gesca about $100-million to pay off its bank debt. The move was part of a broader restructuring that also involved employees making concessions.

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Related: EU wants member countries to co-ordinate budgets | Canada, EU at loggerheads over bank tax | European Central Bank chief: Bank of International Settlements to Rule the Global Economy | Harper calls for global economic governance, lauds G20 as ruling forum | US prepares to push for global capital rules | Flaherty wins delay in decision on global bank tax at interim G20 meeting | Global bank tax urged by IMF | Flaherty stands firm against new bank tax | G20 sounds warning over lack of progress on global regulation | Banking reforms urgent, Harper says at G20 sherpas’ meeting | G20 ’sherpas’ meet with IMF, World Bank on Ottawa Gordon Brown’s plan for global bank tax ‘a step closer’ | Global Bank Insurance Levy Wins Support over Transaction Tax at Davos | Harper urges G20 to follow economic accords | Bankers unite against Barack Obama and Gordon Brown in call for world regulation | EU urged to adopt bank supertax | Obama ponders bank transaction levy to recoup bailout shortfalls | Final Copenhagen Text Includes Global Transaction Tax | EU calls for tax on bank transactions | UK: Brown takes campaign for Tobin tax to Commonwealth | UK: Brown proposes global fund to kick-start Copenhagen climate change process | 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 | G20 nations meet as protests flare on issue of international banking regulation | 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 | IMF poised to print billions of dollars in ‘global quantitative easing’ | Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | Flaherty calls for mandatory IMF surveillance | 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

Steve Watson, PrisonPlanet.com
May 13, 2010

Federalized union touted by Bilderberg’s finest

The European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, has revealed a set of proposals to fully integrate the economies of the EU member states and centralize power under a federalized union.

Following monday’s announcement of a €750bn EU bailout fund, the EC head and Bilderberg darling José Manuel Barroso announced details of the plan for further European integration.

“Europe has dealt with the immediate emergency but we must also show we are serious about the more fundamental reforms needed. We must now get to the root of the problem.” Barroso stated at a press conference in Brussels.

Currently, the European Central Bank sets interest rates for the euro zone, while national governments set their own fiscal and economic policies. It is this imbalance, which was enforced upon member states with the creation of the EU and a single European currency, that Barroso and his ilk say has led to the escalation of the financial crisis in Europe.

The new proposals centre on three main initiatives.

Firstly the national budgets of member states would be opened up to supervision, scrutiny and pressure from all other EU nations operating under the central body.

Secondly, there would be increased monitoring of macroeconomic imbalances and “competitiveness” between countries.

Thirdly, the proposals call for the creation of a European Monetary Fund or EMF — a permanent bailout mechanism described by the EU’s monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn as “a last-resort mechanism of financial assistance in the form of loans, with interest rates that would be so unattractive that no one would want to use it voluntarily.”

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Great – and a good outcome from this investigation would be the banning of CDS, CDO, derivatives, and the rest of the casino securities as inherently fraudulent and an expansion of the investigation to bring the political and economic power compact known as the Bilderberg group to account for their hand in this. What are the chances?

Related: SEC widens probe of Wall Street to include Morgan Stanley | Goldman execs squirm in face of angry U.S. Senators | Goldman’s Fabrice Tourre: Emails reveal he thought borrowers ‘won’t last long’ | In revealed e-mails, Goldman chief says we ‘made more than we lost’ by betting against market | German bank severs Goldman ties | Goldman Sachs Eats Its Young | Goldman Sachs charged with $1bn fraud over toxic sub-prime securities | Goldman fights accusations of greed | Wall Street: Looting Main Street | J.P. Morgan rolls into Calgary | JPMorgan, Citigroup Helped Doom Lehman, Report Says | Goldman role in Greek crisis probed | How EU Countries Cooked Books Using Derivatives | Goldman Sachs Helped Greece Obscure Debt Through Currency Swaps | America slides deeper into depression as Wall Street revels | How Goldman secretly bet on the U.S. housing crash | Goldman Sachs breaks record with $16.7bn bonus pot | More US Bank Failures and The Coming Deposit Insurance Bailout | Arrest Over Software Illuminates Wall St. Secret | The Lords of Time: Goldman Sachs and low-latency trading | Record quarterly profits and bonuses: Goldman Sachs makes out like a bandit on taxpayer’s dime | Goldman-Sachs: Pilfered trading code could be used to ‘manipulate markets’ | Taibbi: NYSE ends transparency to protect Goldman Sachs | Central banks to take off ‘training wheels’ | Goldman Sachs: The Great American Bubble Machine | 10 U.S. banks to repay U.S. bailout money | Top Senate Democrat: bankers “own” the U.S. Congress | Barclays, Lloyd’s, RBS join Goldman-Sachs in the black | Goldman-Sachs to repay TARP loan, resume private operations, bonuses, at “earliest time” possible | Which Banks Will Rule? | Wall Street’s Big Takeover | IMF may need to “print money”, act as “world’s central bank” as crisis spreads | Behind the panic: Financial warfare over the future of global bank power | Goldman-Sachs Alumni Hold Reins of Financial System | What Really Killed Bear Stearns? | Soros points out regulated markets fail to operate on market fundamentals, calls for more regulation | Competition study calls for lowered barriers to foreign ownership, bank mergers | Massive overhaul urged on foreign investment in airlines, media, and banks | Bilderberg Seeks Bank Centralization Agenda

Andrew Clark, Julia Kollewe, The Guardian
May 13, 2010

Inquiry into bid to find whether banks cheated in hunt for high credit ratings includes Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley

An allegedly “cosy” relationship between top Wall Street banks and credit rating agencies is under investigation by New York’s attorney general, who has issued a flurry of subpoenas to examine whether leading financial institutions cheated in the hunt for valuable triple-A grades.

New York’s prosecution chief, Andrew Cuomo, is scrutinising the behaviour of eight leading banks, adding to a rapidly spreading web of criminal investigations into Wall Street’s questionable ethics in the run-up to the global financial crisis. Many financial experts believe that overly optimistic assessments by ratings firms were a key factor in creating an overblown market for derivatives and mortgage-backed securities.

Sources close to the investigation revealed that the banks targeted by the inquiry are Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Credit Agricole and Merrill Lynch, which is owned by Bank of America. Subpoenas have also gone to the three major ratings agencies — Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch.

Cuomo wants to see whether banks provided misleading, or incomplete, data to the agencies to get lucrative high ratings for packages of sub-prime mortgages, allowing them to sell them as safe investments to clients. Many such securities became virtually worthless when the US housing market collapsed in 2007 and 2008, as it suddenly became clear that underlying home loans had been written on an irresponsible basis to homeowners without the wherewithal to repay them.

Critics of rating agencies say they were had a conflict of interest because their revenue came from the banks whose securities they were supposed to be rating objectively. The agencies have come under attack for revealing too much of the methodology used in their judgments, which could have allowed banks to “game” the system by providing selective information tailor-made to tick the right boxes.

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Tireless advocate Nicholas Stern continues the push for multiple global taxes continues in the hope that at least one or more of these revenue streams opens up – which, as the Copenhagen document revealed, would necessitate the construction of additional international financial architecture to administer it. As is usually the case, this is the real point of the urgent, tearful appeals, the demonization of climate skeptics as ‘deniers’, the wholesale falsification of climate data – to loot, to funnel money into the coffers of emerging international institutions, to centralize economic power. Let’s recap some information about ‘Lord’ Nicholas Stern, shall we?

Nicholas Stern sits on the board of an intergovernmental panel on carbon capture and storage technology alongside James Wolfensohn and major international corporate interests (Chevron? Exxon? Shell? Halliburton??), and helped found the Carbon Ratings Agency. A former World Bank chief economist — that’s the World Bank, people, which has called for a world government, and which is no friend of the third world — you might say that Stern is somewhat invested in the idea of global warming. He’s Vice Chairman of the IDEAGlobal group, which is described as “… an independent, global, research organization, with its headquarters in Singapore, and subsidiaries in New York and London. IDEAGlobal Group is a leading supplier of independent and impartial advice to 50 central banks in the formation of policy and is read by financial professionals in over 1,000 dealing rooms worldwide. Of the 50 largest financial institutions as ranked by Euromoney, all but four are clients of IDEAglobal. Group companies include IDEAglobal and IDEAcarbon.” Nice Rolodex, Mr. Stern. More about his connections to the UNFCCC, GEF, IPCC and other globalist institutions invested in carbon monetization may be found here.

Related: Britain pushes for new climate talks; IMF and global taxes to figure into wealth redistribution scheme | IMF chief calls for quota-based global warming slush fund | EU considers general carbon tax | Leaked UN Documents Reveal Plan For “Green World Order” By 2012 | Davos: Global climate fund threatens aid to developing world, campaigner warns | Davos 2010: George Soros warns gold is now the ‘ultimate bubble’, calls for IMF to handle climate fund | Copenhagen Accord Establishes Global Government Framework | Canada part of Copenhagen climate deal | Final Copenhagen Text Includes Global Transaction Tax | World leaders push for climate deal | UN Chief: We Will Impose Global Governance | Copenhagen climate summit releases draft final text | IMF could fund climate adaptation: Soros | Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after ‘Danish text’ leak | Bombshell UN Climate Documents Reveal Planned “End Run” Around National Sovereignty | Canada agrees to contribute to $10-billion climate change fund | UK: Brown proposes global fund to kick-start Copenhagen climate change process | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Everyone in Britain could be given a personal ‘carbon allowance’ | Czech President: Copenhagen to be ‘Largest tax increase in world history’ | 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

Kevin Carmichael, Globe and Mail
May 13, 2010

Add another big voice to those calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to talk about climate change at the Group of 20 summit in Toronto next month.

Nicholas Stern, the British economist who authored a seminal 700-page study on the economics of global warming in 2006, says the G20 has a role in achieving the “political agreement” that he believes is necessary to advance on the commitments made at the United Nations’ climate change conference in Copenhagen in December.

Among those commitments is a pledge to raise $30-billion (U.S.) over three years to help developing countries adapt “low-carbon” economic policies. Leaders promised to increase that sum to $100-billion a year by 2020, but without working out how the money will be raised or where it might come from.

The G20, which includes the world’s major economies, should play a role in answering those questions, Lord Stern said after a speech at the International Monetary Fund in Washington Wednesday evening.

“You can’t really discuss the finance on the scale that we are talking about unless the G20 is involved and involved this year,” Lord Stern, a professor at the London School of Economics and a former advisory to the British government, said in response to my question. “It is very important that [the G20] looks at it and looks at it in a welcoming way.”

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Related: Water demand puts Canadian rivers at risk | Canada, U.S. will renegotiate Great Lakes water treaty | Water not recognized as human right in World Water Forum statement | Canada’s bid for UN Security Council seat tied to water issue | Changes to law could affect navigation of Canadian waters, critics say | Detroit granted water extraction exemption due to ‘historical precedent’ | Bilderberg-connected Desmarais dynasty thinktank supports exporting Canada’s water | Water pact will deplete Great Lakes, expert fears | Beware thirsty Americans, Kennedy tells Canada | Closed-door talks focusing on our water supply | Canada’s water needs protection from thirsty America: trade lawyer

Juliet O’Neill, Canwest News
May 13, 2010

OTTAWA – Stronger protection against bulk water exports from rivers and streams that cross the U.S.-Canada border was announced Thursday by the federal government.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon cited the depletion of water in the once mighty Rio Grande River that crosses the U.S.-Mexico border at a news conference announcing the bill he tabled in the House of Commons.

“That water basin is on the point of being completely dried up and that is what we want to be able to avoid here,” he said at a news conference.

The bill would “plug the last remaining gap” in a ban against bulk water removal that is in place for the Great Lakes and other water that straddles the Canada-U.S. border and is covered by provincial law. The bill provides new powers of inspection and enforcement and fines of up to $6 million for corporate violations. The exception is to help forest fire fighting or other disasters in the United States.

“This important legislation makes it clear that we are not in the business of exporting our water,” Cannon said. “Canadian water is not a commodity. It is not for sale.”

The proposed new amendments to the Boundary and Transboundary Waters Protection Act “closes any gap that might be there by completing what provinces already do.”

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Ironically, this is what the military is supposed to be spending money on – national defence, coastal integrity – rather than militaristic adventures in regime change and resource acquisition in the Middle East.

Update (2010/05/14): It appears no-one thought to tell Peter Mackay about this. The order to mothball these ships was rescinded within 24 hours of it being announced. See here and here.

Related: Military to get $5B for armoured vehicles | RCMP and US Coast Guard to integrate as Canada signs border pact with Homeland Security | Cost of Afghan mission jumps to $11.3-billion | Tories seek extra $331-million for Afghan mission | Canadian military getting 1,300 new heavily armoured trucks for ‘domestic use’ | Afghan mission cost: up to $18B | ‘Some’ Troops to stay in Afghanistan past 2011: McKay | Canadian military acquiring new helicopters, drones | Federal government quietly releases $490B military plan | Over 100 complaints about access to govt. info on Afghan mission: report | Army begins using $150,000 artillery shells | ‘What is it they’re trying to hide?’ NDP asks for military export data | Canada’s military exports soar as numbers go unreported: CBC investigation

CBC News
May 13, 2010

A shortage of money and sailors is forcing Canada’s navy to mothball half of its fleet of coastal patrol vessels.

Canada’s 12 Kingston-class ships, based in Halifax and Esquimalt, B.C., are operated by the navy reserve. The 55-metre vessels are used to patrol the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific ocean coasts.

In a statement to CBC News, the navy says it made the tough choice to leave several ships at dock and strip them of their crews because it doesn’t have the resources to operate all 12.

The navy says the move is necessary to continue the primary mission of defending Canada.

“Upon close examination of resources and priorities, this was deemed necessary to safeguard and optimize our operational capability, both now and in the future,” wrote Denise LaViolette, a navy spokeswoman.

Three ships will remain on each coast. The others won’t be scrapped, but they will be put in long-term storage.

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