statism watch

People are being taught this new religion by the media – that it’s tough and cool to have the army doing checkpoints domestically, to have police now carry submachine guns around in London, UK, on the New York subway, etc. They’ve even launched these little pilot projects in Britain where your kids watch a ‘Spy Kids’ video, (same brand as the film) and are taught how to file reports to the police like the Young Spies in 1984. It’s as though Britain is just implementing Orwell’s visions in 1984 one after the other. And what did he learn, working at the BBC? He learned a lot about how powerful a tool propaganda can be when a state amps it up to engineer cultural mores.

Flashback: DHS Video Portrays Average Americans As Terrorists | US Homeland Security: Terror fight needs public’s vigilance | 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 Home Secretary unveils civilian anti-terrorism security force | Pre-Olympic transit ads encourage citizen surveillance | US Urban Warfare Drills Linked To Coming Economic Rage | UK Terror Law To Make Photographing Police Illegal | Army ‘Strategic Shock’ Report Says Troops May Be Needed To Quell U.S. Civil Unrest | US Counterinsurgency Manual Leaked, Calls for False Flag Operations, Suspension of Human Rights | CBC Radio Broadcasts Expose of North American Police State | Fascist America, in 10 easy steps

Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com
March 11, 2010

Government ad running on British radio station tells public to report people who close their curtains as potential suicide bombers

A new government commercial currently running on one of Britain’s most popular radio stations is selling one thing – fear – by encouraging Londoners to report their neighbors as terrorists if they use cash, enjoy their privacy, or even close their curtains.

The advertisement, produced in conjunction with national radio outlet TallkSport, promotes the “anti-terrorist hotline” and encourages people to report individuals who don’t talk to their neighbors much, people who like to keep themselves to themselves, people who close their curtains, and people who don’t use credit cards.

“This may mean nothing, but together it could all add up to you having suspicions,” states the voice on the ad, before continuing “We all have a role to play in combating terrorism” (we’re all indentured stasi informants for the government).

“If you see anything suspicious, call the confidential anti-terrorist hotline….if you suspect it, report it,” concludes the commercial.

Listen to the ad below.

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Is this a response to CanadaParticipates.ca, the website launched by the group that staged the anti-prorogation rallies? Or simple a belated nod to the thousands of Canadians that got out to those protests. Either way, this is what leaders and their staffers should be doing in the Internet age. But like a fuzzy sweater, the image of a consensus-driven leader doesn’t really work on Harper. That suit is an ill-fitting one. To wait so long, and to have done so many things to centralize power in the PMO, this small consultative effort is of course going to draw fire. Let’s assume he knew that. It will be interesting to see how he handles the response interview on Tuesday. Now, go post some comments on the TalkCanada channel. It can’t get any easier, you’ve got a direct line to Harper’s staff until Sunday 1PM EST.

Related: Cabinet ministers’ offices regularly interfere in access to information requests, says Tory staffer | Conservatives accused of hiding information | Ottawa won’t budge on secrecy laws | McGuinty won’t deny political interference with Freedom of Information requests | Information commissioner quits, Ottawa chided for lacking ‘guts’ | Canadian Parliament Threatens People For Posting Video Of Proceedings Online | Government secrecy ‘grim,’ watchdog says | Watchdog alarmed by Harper’s information clampdown | Listeria files withheld due to ’systemic’ problems with access to information | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | Radical change needed in privacy protection, Ont. watchdog says | Files tagged as `sensitive’ cause unfair delays, watchdog says | Tentacles of Secrecy Grip Tightly | Parliament losing power, author says | Over 100 complaints about access to govt. info on Afghan mission: report | Information lockdown: How Harper Controls the Spin | Tories kill access to information database | Harper to create government-run media centre: report

Richard J Brennan, Toronto Star
March 11, 2010

OTTAWA –– Prime Minister Stephen Harper draped himself in Olympic gold medals Thursday as he boasted – in the House of Commons and via YouTube – that his Conservative government almost single handedly pulled Canada back from the precipice of financial ruin.

“Bad choices now – unaffordable long-term spending commitments, ill-advised tax hikes, dithering on deficits and difficult decisions – will doom those countries who choose them to years of debt, stagnation and joblessness. A country of 33 million people that can win the most gold medals ever at an Olympic Games does not deserve that. And, on our watch, Canada will not get it,” Harper concluded at the end of a 30-minute speech.

Giving his official response to last week’s throne speech, Harper went beyond the television sets of Canadians and had his speech livestreamed on YouTube.com, where viewers were also invited to submit questions. Harper will make a return visit next Tuesday at 7 p.m. to answer a selection of questions.

In turning to the popular video-sharing website to get his message out to Canadians and others “unfiltered” by the national media, Harper opened up a social media can of worms.

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Alternate definition of irony: Goldman Sachs, lecturing anyone else on abuse of process.

Related: Shaw Cable moves for acquisition of controlling share in Canwest Global | Tipping point at CanWest | Obama: We Need To Bailout Newspapers To Stop New Media Taking Over | Tech giants respond to Media with ideas on charging readers for news online | Reuters Steps Up; Says Linking, Excerpting, Sharing Are Good Things For The News | Associated Press Tries To DRM The News | Should linking be illegal? | Ottawa considering aid for private broadcasters | The Death of Canadian Journalism | Prepackaged News

On Goldman Sachs: 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 | 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 | Behind the panic: Financial warfare over the future of global bank power | Goldman-Sachs Alumni Hold Reins of Financial System | Bilderberg Seeks Bank Centralization Agenda

Susan Krahinsky, Grant Robinson, The Globe and Mail
March 10, 2010

Firm has complained about being left out of the bidding, and in court documents on Wednesday called it ‘a remarkable abuse of the CCAA’s process’

New York investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS-N175.301.791.03%) is appealing a decision to allow Shaw Communications Inc. (SJR.B-T20.600.301.48%) to take control of CanWest’s broadcast assets, once the company has emerged from restructuring.

The Calgary-based cable giant won approval three weeks ago to invest a minimum of $95-million in exchange for 20 per cent of the equity and an 80-per-cent voting interest in a restructured CanWest. It knocked aside a competing bid put forward at the last minute by Goldman, in partnership with private equity firm Catalyst Capital Group, the Asper family and former executives of Rogers Communications Inc.

One member of that failed bid came out in support of Goldman’s appeal on Wednesday. In a statement, Catalyst said its proposal with Goldman still stands.

“Catalyst strongly supports Goldman Sachs as it exercises its rights – both as a matter of law and a matter of fairness … Catalyst and Goldman Sachs remain committed to our proposal,” the firm wrote.

CanWest’s broadcasting division filed for court protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act in October; its newspaper division filed in January. The company owes almost $4-billion to its creditors.

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And the other fork of the dual attack on online freedom is exhumed to lend support in the present assault – ‘cyberterror’, meet ‘cyber bullying’. Of course, if someone says something mean to someone on the telephone, do you ban the telephone network? Do you set up some new infrastructure to filter bad words and ideas from being spoken on the phone? Do you sue Bell Telephone? Of course not, because this is a question of human action and human nature. The technology isn’t what is at fault. The media is hyping and hyping these isolated cases where some kid commits suicide because some other kid said they were fat (or whatever the case may be), and the outcome is going to be some sort of ‘driver’s license‘ or vetting process or an automated censor board unless people get a little perspective and look at why the media establishment really wants the Internet locked down: Control of content.

Related: Italy Convicts Google Execs over Youtube Video of Downs Syndrome Boy | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | China launches interview requirement, licensing for personal websites | Internet companies voice alarm over Italian copyright law | Death Of The Internet: Censorship Bills In UK, Australia, U.S. Aim To Block “Undesirable” Websites | Australia introduces web filters | Obama Wants Computer Privacy Ruling Overturned | Security boss calls for end to net anonymity | Cyber Bullying Case Officially Dismissed for Vagueness | Do We Need a New Internet? | Cyberbullying verdict turns rule-breakers into criminals | Felony hacking precedent not set in case of Myspace cyberbully | Myspace terms of use could become fulcrum for destruction of online anonymity in precedent setting case | Microsoft patents web moderator robots, forbidden phrases to be memory-holed | Berners-Lee W3C Consortium to ‘Authorize’ Website Content? | Law Professor tells tech conference: plans to shut down Internet already on deck | MySpace signs up to OpenID scheme

Dan Whitcomb, Reuters
March 9, 2010

The Internet was built on freedom of expression. Society wants someone held accountable when that freedom is abused. And major Internet companies like Google and Facebook are finding themselves caught between those ideals.

Although Google, Facebook and their rivals have enjoyed a relatively “safe harbour” from prosecution over user-generated content in the United States and Europe, they face a public that increasingly is more inclined to blame them for cyber-bullying and other online transgressions.

Such may have been the case when three Google executives were convicted in Milan, Italy on February 24 over a bullying video posted on the site – a verdict greeted with horror by online activists, who fear it could open the gates to such prosecutions and ultimately destroy the Internet itself.

Journalist Jeff Jarvis suggested on his influential BuzzMachine blog that the Italian court, which found Google executives guilty of violating the privacy of an autistic boy who was taunted in the video, was essentially requiring websites to review everything posted on them.

“The practical implication of that, of course, is that no one will let anyone put anything online because the risk is too great,” Jarvis wrote. “I wouldn’t let you post anything here. My ISP (Internet Service Provider) wouldn’t let me post anything on its services. And that kills the Internet.”

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Related: UK Citizen snoopers recruited to spy on Londoners | UK University student fined £80 for dropping matchstick on Oxford pavement | 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 | UK recruits an army of snoopers with police-style 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 | UK House of Lords warns over ’surveillance state’ | UK Shortly to Become Worse Surveillance Society than Stasi East Germany | ‘Environmental volunteers’ will be encouraged to spy on their neighbours | ‘Our People’ stand up for Putin | Vladimir Putin sets up nationalist Russian Youth brigade

Tom Whitehead, The Telegraph
March 8, 2010

Hundreds more town hall staff and private security guards are to be handed police-style powers in a fresh Home Office drive to create an army of civilian “spies”.

Almost 1,700 people, also including car park attendants and dog wardens, already have powers to hand out a string of fines and even take photographs of low level offenders under the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme.

But the Government has quietly announced it plans to review the scheme with chief police officers to see how it can be expanded further.

Rank and file officers warned the move is “blurring the lines” of legitimate law enforcement and is creating a “third tier” of policing.

Even chief constables are now cautious over the scheme following it’s rapid growth, which has seen numbers increase by a fifth in just 12 months.

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Incredibly, columnists at the National Post and the Star may actually have some common ground here. There is a distinction in philosophy that is worthy of more consideration precisely because it is lost on so many people, that of natural rights versus legal rights. In Canada and much of the Western world these days, we assume that rights are privileges granted by the state, a sort of legal allowance granted by our Mommy or Daddy, subject to change, without which all our actions would be proscribed, prohibited, and we would be unable to live. Gee, thanks Mom! This is a fundamentally Hobbesian notion of rights – rights as granted by social contract and enforced by the overwhelming power of government, without which there would be anarchy and a ‘war of all against all‘.

There is an alternative view however, and this gets to the heart of Mr. Jonas’ point on gun ownership and the conduct of one’s business. The classical liberal or Lockean tradition- which has nothing to do with what ‘Liberal’ means to the public today – was the tradition that ran through our culture when the American constitution was framed, and by contrast, it subscribed to a rather more benevolent view of human nature. On this view, rights are not granted, but observed by government. In a state of nature, the thinking goes, men and women are unmolested and so perfectly free to sustain their lives, their rights are inalienable, granted by nature (or God). Thus government’s role is not to grant rights, but to sustain them in a social setting. Which view do you subscribe to? Are you an atom of the state, or is the state your servant?

Flashback: Toronto Star Columnist Fiorito: The cops came and took my gun | BATF Notice Bans Private Gun Sales In Texas | Parliament votes ‘in principle’ to scrap gun registry, bill moves to second reading | Tories move closer to killing gun registry | UK: Paramilitary police placed on routine foot patrol for first time | Toronto police seize 400 guns in ’safety push’ | Handgun bans and the world of make-believe | No vote scheduled on Tory bill to kill gun registry | Americans stick to their guns as firearms sales surge | Secret Homeland Security Threat Assessment Labels Gun Owners Potential Terrorists | Harper urges supporters to fight long gun registry | Police-run gun amnesties in trouble across country | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | Toronto Police offer gun owners shiny new camera, home visit to disarm themselves | Layton promises urban gun control | Ont. premier calls for Canada-wide ban on handguns | Citizens Witness Gunplay, Black Uniforms as ‘Flashpoint’ Shoots Drama in Heart of Toronto | A historic gun club’s final days | Chicago, awash in gun violence, gives Toronto advice: You need a gun ban like ours | Illinois governor suggests National Guard help with Chicago gun crime | Armed Police to Roam Toronto High Schools | My gun, my right. We’ll see | Municipalities Join Miller in Calling for Final Citizen Disarmament | Pistol Pendant Causes Airport Holdup | Miller wants shooting ranges shut down | Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway

George Jonas, The National Post
March 6, 2010

The minute anyone talks or writes about free speech, some twit is sure to pop up and say that there’s no absolute freedom of speech. They usually can’t resist adding that no one is free to shout “Fire!” in a crowded movie theatre.

They’re quite right. The only thing wrong with those who keep insisting there are no absolutes is they do it to restrict some particulars that irk them.

Everyone knows free speech isn’t “absolute.” If it were, it would be legal to defame people, counsel murder, or impersonate a police officer. No one disputes that being free to use hand gestures doesn’t entitle anyone to signal a truck to back over a toddler. Our freedom to gesticulate isn’t “absolute.” It’s enough, though, to give censors the finger.

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Iceland has spanked the global central banks that engineered the crisis it now suffers from. As covered here, Icelanders are justified in their anger. It remains to be seen how Iceland is spanked in turn. Iceland, apparently, will not bow to IMF debt slavery, it has not yet been pacified in the way that some developing nations have been. The consequences will reverberate throughout the economic system. One of the most interesting questions to be resolved is whether or not Iceland will be able to survive outside of the nascent ‘new world order‘ should the IMF and the EU treat it as a pariah state. Will new local economies and trans-border trade arise outside of the centrally controlled economic system? Will barter trade in local resources short circuit any future banking tax or carbon taxation for this region? Wish them luck, and stay tuned.

Flashback: Icelanders to vote no on debt deal | Iceland stares into Icesave abyss | EU executive recommends fast-track membership for Iceland | No solution in dispute over Iceland deposits | Iceland sets date for Icesave vote | Iceland says IMF aid likely delayed | Iceland blocks central bank debt repayment deal | Icelandic parliament rolls over, votes for EU membership | Iceland to be fast-tracked into the EU | Iceland’s government collapses | In Iceland, the heat is on | Police fire pepper spray at Iceland protesters | Icelanders storm central bank in protest | Iceland inflation soars to 17.1% | 5 injured during protest in Iceland over economic meltdown

Gudjon Helgason,Sylvia Hui, The Associated Press
March 6, 2010

By overwhelming margin, voters turn down repaying Netherlands and UK for Internet bank failure

A demonstrator holds a sign during a protest against a government referendum in Reykjavik. Iceland’s voters on Saturday resoundingly rejected a $5.3 billion plan to pay off Britain and the Netherlands for debts spawned by the collapse of an Icelandic Internet bank, according to initial results. (Bob Strong/Reuters)

REYKJAVIK, ICELAND—Iceland’s voters on Saturday resoundingly rejected a $5.3 billion plan to pay off Britain and the Netherlands for debts spawned by the collapse of an Icelandic Internet bank, according to initial results.

Results returned from around 74,150 ballots counted so far in a country of about 320,000 showed that 93 per cent of voters said “no” in the referendum, compared to just 1.6 per cent who said “yes.”

The referendum results are indicative of how angry many Icelanders are as the tiny island nation struggles to recover from a deep recession. The global financial crisis wreaked political and economic havoc on Iceland, as its banks collapsed within the space of a week in October 2008 and its currency, the krona, plummeted. The Icelandic government was the first to fall as a result of the meltdown. [Ed. Note: This was no systemic, blame-free crisis. It was engineered by criminals working in the Icelandic banking system.]

Icelanders were deciding whether to approve the payment of $3.5 billion to Britain and $1.8 billion to the Netherlands as compensation for funds that those governments paid to around 340,000 of their citizens who had accounts with the collapsed bank Icesave, an Icelandic Internet bank that offered high interest rates before it failed along with its parent, Landsbanki.

“This result is no surprise,” Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir said. “Now we must turn to the task of finishing the negotiations on Icesave.”

The debt owed to Britain and the Netherlands is a small sum compared to the massive amounts spent to rescue other victims of the global meltdown — $182.5 billion was paid out to keep U.S. insurance giant American International Group Inc. alive — but many taxpayers in the country say they can’t afford to pay it.

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W. T. F. Expect more of this sort of thing as every aspect of your life is micromanaged and trcked under the technological control grid. Enjoy being fingerprinted and iris scanned, prisoners.

Flashback: UK: Mobile fingerprint scanner for English and Welsh police | Australia to fingerprint, face-scan visitors from Muslim nations | Homeland Security to scan fingerprints of travellers exiting the US | Tories propose law allowing fingerprinting before charges are laid | UK: New biometric security checks could include brain scans, heart rhythm fingerprinting | Parents, children to be fingerprinted at initial 250+ nursery schools in UK | Police will use new device to take fingerprints in street, vendors say face scanning next | Scots schoolchildren to be fingerprinted in controversial ID scheme | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | UNBC students give thumbs down to fingerprint scanners | Give public biometrics the finger

Susan Taylor, NBC Poway
March 4, 2010

Skateboarders in Poway will have to register and be fingerprinted before using the Skate Park.

The city council voted in favor of the new high tech entry system Tuesday night. Skaters will have to press a thumb pad on a turnstile. If a scanner matches a skateboarder’s print to the one given in a new, free registration process, they’ll be allowed in. A security camera will record the entry.

Park users who break the house rules or indulge in roughhousing, bullying or vandalism will have their thumbprint voided.

“So the next time they put their thumb in (the thumb pad), it will not work,” says Poway City Councilman Jim Cunningham. “Then they will contact someone and find out why.”

To critics who may see all this as somewhat Orwellian, Cunningham has this comeback “We’re not Big Brother. The thumbprints are not going to Homeland Security. [Ed. Note: Yet. You're being conditioned.] They’re being used specifically for this particular facility, and we want people to enjoy it.”

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Teach your children well – while you’re still allowed to, that is.

Flashback: UK: Parents need license to play with children in public | UK: Now Big Brother targets helpful parents – 1 in 4 Britons vetted for giant new child protection database | Has your child been CAFed? How the Government plans to record intimate information on every child in Britain | Do Swiss parents need a childrearing licence? | UK Parents Need Government Permission to Kiss Children

Ryan Kisiel, Steve Doughty, The Daily Mail
March 4, 2010

Heads will be forced to list children as young as five on school ‘hate registers’ over everyday playground insults.

Even minor incidents must be recorded as examples of serious bullying and details kept on a database until the pupil leaves secondary school.

Teachers are to be told that even if a primary school child uses homophobic or racist words without knowing their meaning, simply teaching them such words are hurtful and inappropriate is not enough.

Instead the incident has to be recorded and his or her behaviour monitored for future signs of ‘hate’ bullying.

The accusations will also be recorded in databases held by councils and made available to Whitehall and ministers to help them devise future anti-bullying campaigns.

The scale of the effort to stop children using homophobic or racist language was revealed after the parents of a ten-year-old primary school pupil in Somerset, Peter Drury, were told that his name would be put on a register and his behaviour monitored while he remained at school.

The boy was reported after he called a friend ‘gay boy’. His parents fear the record of homophobic bullying will count against him throughout his school career and even into adulthood.

In another incident last year a six-year-old girl, Sharona Gower, was reported for ‘racist bullying’ at her school near Tunbridge Wells in Kent.

Sharona was chased by two 11-year-old girls, one of whom taunted her that she had chocolate on her face.

The six-year-old responded to one of the girls, who was black: ‘Well, you’ve got chocolate on yours.’

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Mr. Obama, tear down that wall. An unlikely prospect, since the executive has blocked 9/11 family lawsuits related to the issue, obfuscated Saudi connections, and refused to engage with the large segments of the population that support a call for a new investigation. Here is the website for the New Hampshire ‘Vote for Answers’ movement.

Flashback: Washington Times: Architects for 9/11 Truth Present Petition to Congress | Professor fingers Thermite charges as responsible for 9/11 demolition | Study claims ‘highly engineered explosive’ found in WTC rubble | Fire Consumes Beijing Skyscraper, Unlike WTC7 Building Does Not Collapse | National Post Columnist: Who dares to question the ‘Big Lie of 9/11′? | NIST WTC 7 Report: Shameful, Embarrassing And Completely Flawed

Russia Today
March 4, 2010

A new movement to reinvestigate the 9/11 attacks is gaining pace in the US. With major public support, 12 towns are set to decide whether to ask the federal government for a new independent probe.

New York is dubbed as the Empire State for its wealth and resources and is rightfully regarded as America’s most famous city, a beacon of fashion, finance and fast paced action.

New Hampshire is the Granite State of so-called self sufficiency. Less flash and cash, most famous for hosting the first U.S. presidential primary.

New York and New Hampshire are more than 200 miles apart, but for all that distance, the two US locations intersect on one issue: the 9/11 attacks. While it was in Manhattan where three buildings fell, the people of Keene, New Hampshire are pushing for a new probe to find out why.

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