statism watch

This is really happening, people, and it’s global. The open Internet needs citizens of every country, but especially America, to flood their representative’s offices with phone calls, emails, and letters to block the attempts to destroy online freedom in the name of the sham cyberthreat, cyberterror, the kid next door downloading MP3s. Or the US and the UN are going to start bombing it.

Flashback: Google, NSA may team up to probe cyberattacks | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | 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 | UK Internet surveillance plan to go ahead | Security boss calls for end to net anonymity | Case for Internet spying not closed | Planned Internet, wireless surveillance laws worry watchdogs | UK ISPs condemn Internet surveillance plans | UK to found new ‘cyber-security’ units attached to national eavesdropping centre | ISPs must help police snoop on internet under new bill | UK plans to integrate ‘cybersecurity’ centre with US, Canada | Cybersecurity Is Framework For Total Government Regulation & Control Of Our Lives | Obama Set to Create A Cybersecurity Czar With Broad Mandate | EU wants ‘Internet G12′ to govern cyberspace | UK Home Secretary has secret plan to surveil, ‘Master the Internet’ | Munk Centre researchers discover botnet, call for international cyberspace ‘legal regime’ | NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’, Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress | Do We Need a New Internet? | Defense Contractors See $$$ in Cyber Security | RCMP to helm a Canadian “cyber-security strategy” | Sweden approves wiretapping law | Law Professor tells tech conference: plans to shut down Internet already on deck

Ryan Singel, Wired.com
March 1, 2010

The biggest threat to the open internet is not Chinese government hackers or greedy anti-net-neutrality ISPs, it’s Michael McConnell, the former director of national intelligence.

McConnell’s not dangerous because he knows anything about SQL injection hacks, but because he knows about social engineering. He’s the nice-seeming guy who’s willing and able to use fear-mongering to manipulate the federal bureaucracy for his own ends, while coming off like a straight shooter to those who are not in the know.

When he was head of the country’s national intelligence, he scared President Bush with visions of e-doom, prompting the president to sign a comprehensive secret order that unleashed tens of billions of dollars into the military’s black budget so they could start making firewalls and building malware into military equipment.

And now McConnell is back in civilian life as a vice president at the secretive defense contracting giant Booz Allen Hamilton. He’s out in front of Congress and the media, peddling the same Cybaremaggedon! gloom.

And now he says we need to re-engineer the internet.

We need to develop an early-warning system to monitor cyberspace, identify intrusions and locate the source of attacks with a trail of evidence that can support diplomatic, military and legal options — and we must be able to do this in milliseconds. More specifically, we need to re-engineer the Internet to make attribution, geo-location, intelligence analysis and impact assessment — who did it, from where, why and what was the result — more manageable. The technologies are already available from public and private sources and can be further developed if we have the will to build them into our systems and to work with our allies and trading partners so they will do the same.

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Oh, another ‘Independent Review’ – like the last attempted whitewash? – courtesy of Rajenda Pauchari, who stands accused himself of massive conflicts of interest in the IPCC scheme. And the ‘few unsettling errors’, as the Associated Press puts it, continue to accumulate as the IPCC desperately tries to defuse the scandal.

Flashback: Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels | Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995 | Leaked climate change emails scientist ‘hid’ data flaws | Canadian scientist says UN’s global warming panel ‘crossing the line’ | Manufactured ‘Science’: Another IPCC Scientist Reveals How UN Scientists talked about ‘trying to make IPCC report so dramatic that US would just have to sign Kyoto Protocol’ | Glacier scientist: I knew data hadn’t been verified | UN wrongly linked global warming to natural disasters | The IPCC glacier meltdown: More global warming fraud exposed | Taxpayers’ millions paid to Indian institute run by UN IPCC climate chief | Climategate: A 2,000-page epic of science and skepticism — Part 2 | Climategate: Al Gore lies | Climategate: A 2,000-page epic of science and skepticism — Part 1 | If Climategate Is No Big Deal, Why Are Questions About It Met With An Armed Response? | Climategate: Investigations into climate fraud fixed | ‘Independent’ United Nations panel to examine Climategate evidence | Bombshell UN Climate Documents Reveal Planned “End Run” Around National Sovereignty | Climategate: Global Warming scientists placed under investigation | Latest Climategate revelation: Climate change data dumped | Climate change: this is the worst scientific scandal of our generation | Obama’s ‘Science Czar’ John Holdren Friend of Climate Deception Lab | “Climategate”: Peer-Review System Was Hijacked By Warming Alarmists | Top Climatology Lab Hacked, E-Mails Reveal Biased Science | E-mails indicate EPA suppressed report skeptical of global warming | Polar bear expert barred from conference by global warming advocates | Top Japanese Scientists: Warming Is Not Caused By Human Activity | IPCC caught with false figures, doubt cast on accuracy of global temperature record

Seth Borenstein, Associated Press
February 27, 2010

Details for new process – the IPCC’s response to recent criticism of its reports – still to be worked out

In a statement issued on Feb. 27, 2020, IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri said the group of volunteer scientists tries to be accurate and follow procedures. ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP/Getty Images

The Nobel Prize-winning international scientific panel studying global warming is seeking independent outside review for how it makes major reports.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said it’s seeking some kind of independent review because of recent criticism about its four 2007 reports.

Critics have found a few unsettling errors, including projections of retreats in Himalayan glaciers, in the thousands of pages of the reports.

Scientists say the problems are minor and have nothing to do with the major conclusions about man-made global warming and how it will harm people and ecosystems. But researchers acknowledge that they have been too slow to respond to a drip-drip-drip of criticisms in the past three months. And those criticisms seem to have resonated in poll results and media coverage that has put climate scientists on the defensive.

“The IPCC clearly has suffered a loss in public confidence,” Stanford University climate scientist Chris Field, a chairman of one of the IPCC’s four main research groups told The Associated Press on Saturday. “And one of the things that I think the world deserves is a clear understanding of what aspects the IPCC does well and what aspects of the IPCC can be improved.”

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Mr. Amano seems eager to have it be known there’s a new sheriff in town, in contrast with his predecessor’s cautious stance on Iran. And there’s a lot of ‘could’s in this article, which render it essentially content-free – let’s have the evidence. Iran, for it’s part, has been chipping away at what good will the IAEA had extended to them in the past through various subtle acts of foot dragging while still complying with the letter of the terms of the inspections. One of ElBaradei’s last statements was highly critical of the regime. They do insist their nuclear program is to be used for domestic energy purposes, however. No doubt Iran’s rejoinder would also point out the double standard that exists: it is of course an open secret that Israel has a massive nuclear capability, undeclared, uninspected. That’s dangerous enough – like the US, Israel is subject to de facto one-party rule, youth conscription, a hair’s breadth away from itself being a military dictatorship. And let’s not forget the USA has been spoiling for war with Iran since the Bush II administration. Well, since way before that even – they overthrew the democratically elected leader of Iran to install the Shah, then armed Saddam Hussein, a longtime CIA asset, to attack Iran in the Iran-Iraq war after public anger against the brutal puppet government’s repression touched off Iran’s Islamic Revolution. Much of the middle eastern conflict now could also be interpreted as an encirclement operation against Iran,  which has no doubt spurred Iran’s well documented conventional buildup. So who’s the aggrieved party? Everyone needs to climb down here. The story will no doubt be interesting to watch as it unfolds.

Flashback: Russia to push ahead on Iran missile deal | Obama threatens actions against Iran over nuclear program | UN sanctions urged over Iran’s uranium plans | Western powers voice scepticism over Iran uranium offer | U.S. deploys land and sea-based missile shield in the Gulf to deter attack from Iran | UK: Tony Blair attempts to shift focus to Iran as ‘global threat’ at Iraq war inquiry | Iran admits jailed protesters were beaten to death | Iranian commanders assassinated, Iran fingers Western intelligence | IAEA members question Iran nuclear intel authenticity | US military could strike Iran, but at what cost? | Another War in the Works | Iran to allow nuclear site inspection | Iran plays into Obama’s hands with disclosure of nuclear facility | UN approves nuclear ‘disarmament’ resolution | Tens of thousands march in Iran | Obama scales back missile defence shield in Europe | Israel ‘will attack Iran this year’ if West does not cripple Tehran with sanctions | Brookings Publication mentions possibility of ‘Horrific Provocation’ to Trigger Iran Invasion | Blast at Iranian mosque raises tensions in run-up to presidential election | Netanyahu: We may be forced to attack Iran | Proposed Missile Shield seen as Provocation by Russia | Neo-cons still preparing for Iran attack | Russia threatens to ’strike’ Poland in wake of U.S. missile plan | Cheney Considered False Flag Operation to Justify War with Iran | US scales up covert destabilization efforts in Iran, continues funding ‘al-Qaeda’ | Israelis ‘rehearse Iran attack’ | Israeli official says attack on Iran ‘unavoidable’ | Bush ‘plans Iran air strike by August’ | U.S. Navy starts exercises in Gulf waters | U.S. National Intelligence Estimate: Iran stopped nuclear weapons work in 2003 | Cheney Orders Media To Sell Attack On Iran | U.S. sending third aircraft carrier to the Middle East | US aircraft carriers in Persian Gulf | Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh: US Indirectly Funding Al-Qaeda Linked Sunni Groups in Move to Counter Iran | Former CIA Officer – US Plans Nuclear Attack On Iran

February 18, 2010
Julian Borger, The Guardian

International Atomic Energy Agency warns Iran could be developing a ‘nuclear payload for a missile’

The UN’s nuclear watchdog raised concerns for the first time today that Iran might be developing a nuclear warhead for a missile.

In his first report on Iran, the new director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, broke with the more cautious style of his predecessor, Mohamed ElBaradei, and suggested Iran could have looked into the construction of a weapon, and that ­weaponisation work could be under way.

Amano’s report to the IAEA board also confirmed that Iran had succeeded in producing 20% enriched uranium, a level of enrichment much closer to weapons grade than it had attempted before. It criticised the Iranian authorities for taking the step without giving IAEA inspectors notice.

Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said the report confirmed Iran’s “peaceful nuclear activities”. But Amano’s comments on the “possible military dimensions” of the programme are likely to add to the diplomatic pressure on Tehran, as they go further than the official position of US intelligence, that weaponisation work is likely to have been suspended in 2003.

Britain, France and Germany have all distanced themselves from the US assessment, and their intelligence agencies now believe that even if Iranian work on warhead design did stop, it has now resumed. American officials have said informally they agree with that conclusion but have yet to update their official position.

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Flashback: Stimulating our way into debt crises | The Federal Reserve as Giant Counterfeiter | IMF warns against retreat from stimulus spending | No new stimulus, economy ’stabilized’: Harper | Can’t say if federal stimulus is working: watchdog | Liberals call stimulus numbers ‘fiction’ | Flaherty, USA say no to global financial tax, yes to continued ’stimulus’ at G20 | G20 to pledge continued ’stimulus’, examine international reserve fund | Aspiring government economists must reveal views on stimulus plan | The Keynesian quagmire | Carney says G20 must stay the course on stimulus | G20 agrees to continue economic stimulus measures; Geithner shops international reserve accord | Former NY governor Spitzer: Federal Reserve is ‘a Ponzi scheme, an inside job’ | Budget officer ‘can’t tell’ if stimulus plan working | G8 leaders see no early end to stimulus | Flaherty looks for way to end stimulus | Harper lays out stimulus spending in progress report | Economist Warns Fed Will Bring About Zimbabwe Style Hyperinflation | Stimulus needed now, Bank of Canada says | Obama signs stimulus bill | Congressman warns unread ’stimulus’ bill will prolong agony | US Congress reaches deal on economic stimulus package | Pass stimulus or watch out, Obama warns | $12B for infrastructure forms key pillar of stimulus package | Brace for a big, ‘comprehensive’ budget: Harper | Transport Minister Baird calls for dramatic action on stimulus package | Obama calls for ‘dramatic action’ on stimulus package | The ugly spectre of ‘new Keynesianism’ and the self-appointed Guardians | Maybe we should look at Zimbabwe before trying to print our way out of a money crisis | Britain to introduce massive stimulus package | Deficits ‘essential,’ Harper says | A New World Financial Order: It Better Work This Time | Flaherty lauds Keynesian global ‘economic stimulus’ strategies | Who are the Architects of Economic Collapse? | The Bush gang’s parting gift: a final, frantic looting of public wealth | Wanted: a new financial order | World needs new Bretton Woods, says Brown | Why Paulson’s Plan is a Fraud | Congressman Ron Paul: Bailout Will Destroy Dollar, World Economy | Congressman Ron Paul Schools Fed Chairman Bernanke on the Bailout Plan | Global ‘liberalization’ illusion under threat. Economist calls for world economic regime, Keynesian saviour. Irony? | Soros points out regulated markets fail to operate on market fundamentals, calls for more regulation | The Illustrated Road to Serfdom

CBC News
February 17, 2010

U.S. President Barack Obama lauded the successes of the one-year-old economic stimulus law in a speech on Wednesday, but warned of the possibility of layoffs in state governments as the $787-billion US stimulus funding runs out.

“We could potentially see layoffs taking place this year because we haven’t re-upped in terms of providing some help to those states and local governments,” said Obama. “That’s something that we’re watching and we’re concerned about.”

But Obama painted an optimistic future and hailed the successes since the implementation of the law.

“One year later, it is largely thanks to the Recovery Act that a second depression is no longer a possibility,” claimed Obama. “So far, the Recovery Act is responsible for the jobs of about two million Americans who would otherwise be unemployed.”

The president took aim at those originally opposed to the relief measures and the lawmakers who voted against it. He recalled his State of the Union address last month saying he watched Republican lawmakers fail to applaud after he talked of tax cuts from the stimulus plan.

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Regardless of whether you believe the theocrat is sincere or not, the omission is telling, especially given Obama’s call for nuclear disarmament at the UN Security Council last year.

Flashback: Russia to push ahead on Iran missile deal | Obama threatens actions against Iran over nuclear program | UN sanctions urged over Iran’s uranium plans | Western powers voice scepticism over Iran uranium offer | U.S. deploys land and sea-based missile shield in the Gulf to deter attack from Iran | UK: Tony Blair attempts to shift focus to Iran as ‘global threat’ at Iraq war inquiry | Iran admits jailed protesters were beaten to death | Iranian commanders assassinated, Iran fingers Western intelligence | IAEA members question Iran nuclear intel authenticity | US military could strike Iran, but at what cost? | Another War in the Works | Iran to allow nuclear site inspection | Iran plays into Obama’s hands with disclosure of nuclear facility | UN approves nuclear ‘disarmament’ resolution | Tens of thousands march in Iran | Obama scales back missile defence shield in Europe | Israel ‘will attack Iran this year’ if West does not cripple Tehran with sanctions | Brookings Publication mentions possibility of ‘Horrific Provocation’ to Trigger Iran Invasion | Blast at Iranian mosque raises tensions in run-up to presidential election | Netanyahu: We may be forced to attack Iran | Proposed Missile Shield seen as Provocation by Russia | Neo-cons still preparing for Iran attack | Russia threatens to ’strike’ Poland in wake of U.S. missile plan | Cheney Considered False Flag Operation to Justify War with Iran | US scales up covert destabilization efforts in Iran, continues funding ‘al-Qaeda’ | Israelis ‘rehearse Iran attack’ | Israeli official says attack on Iran ‘unavoidable’ | Bush ‘plans Iran air strike by August’ | U.S. Navy starts exercises in Gulf waters | U.S. National Intelligence Estimate: Iran stopped nuclear weapons work in 2003 | Cheney Orders Media To Sell Attack On Iran | U.S. sending third aircraft carrier to the Middle East | US aircraft carriers in Persian Gulf | Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh: US Indirectly Funding Al-Qaeda Linked Sunni Groups in Move to Counter Iran | Former CIA Officer – US Plans Nuclear Attack On Iran

Gavin Dahl, RawStory.com
February 14, 2010

The American public has not been informed by the US news media about highly newsworthy statements made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday February 12.

He said the era of nuclear weapons is over, suggesting Iran has no plans to build “inhumane” A-bombs. Ahmadinejad called for a world free of nuclear arms in an interview with Russia’s NTV channel.

“We believe that not only the Middle East but also the whole world should be free of nuclear weapons because we see such weapons as inhumane,” he said.

“Today, no one can use a nuclear weapon and we believe that the US is taking a wrong move by stockpiling nuclear weapons,” he added. “Those who claim that they are against nuclear weapons should dismantle their nuclear weapons first to prove that they are honest.”

So far, the libertarian-leaning Antiwar.com has been the only American media outlet to cover his statements.

Considering Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s calls for sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s position that new sanctions should be “crippling,” one might think the US media would pay attention to Ahmadinejad’s statements.

Instead, the media’s Sarah Palin obsession means that more Americans heard repeated calls to start a new war with Iran in the past week.

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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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In this case, it’s a largely controlled pro-government demonstration, as evidenced by the reports of identical, pre-printed banners. (The info-block below is specifically about the recent Iranian protests. If you’re looking for coverage on the developing Iran/Nuclear story, jump here.)

Flashback: Iran admits jailed protesters were beaten to death | Tens of thousands march in Iran | Global protests condemn new Iran crackdown | Protesters defy Iranian protest ban, violent clashes ensue | Iranian doctor on protests: Regime covering up deaths, using foreign militants | Are the Iranian Protests Another US Orchestrated “Color Revolution?” | Violence on the streets of Tehran as police beat back protesters | Iran protests: Fifth day of unrest as regime cracks down on critics | Twitter emerges as news source during Iran media crackdown | Gunfire breaks out at massive Tehran protest | Iranian protesters trash Tehran | Blast at Iranian mosque raises tensions in run-up to presidential election | US scales up covert destabilization efforts in Iran, continues funding ‘al-Qaeda’ | Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh: US Indirectly Funding Al-Qaeda Linked Sunni Groups in Move to Counter Iran

The Associated Press
February 11, 2010

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad uses occasion to announce Tehran has produced its first package of highly enriched uranium

Security forces dispersed opposition protests as hundreds of thousands of government supporters massed Thursday in a central square of the Iranian capital to mark the 31st anniversary of the revolution that created the Islamic republic.

Authorities clamped down hard to prevent a major show of force by the opposition amid one of the country’s most important political occasions. Tehran residents also reported Internet speeds dropping dramatically and e-mail services such as Gmail being blocked in a common government tactic to foil opposition attempts to organize.

Dozens of hard-liners with batons and pepper spray attacked the convoy of a senior opposition leader, Mahdi Karroubi, as he tried to join the anti-government protests, his son Hossein Karroubi told The Associated Press. The attackers — believed to be members of the Basij civilian militia — damaged several cars and smashed windows on Mr. Karrobi’s car, though he escaped unharmed, he said.

Security forces also briefly detained the granddaughter of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the architect of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and her husband, who are both senior pro-reform politicians, the opposition website Rahesabz reported.

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‘Prevented a third wave…”??! Public Health is apparently trying to justify its actions and get out in front of a brewing scandal. For those that may not know, the WHO is being investigated for corruption, and the H1N1 debacle has been excoriated by the EU Council’s health chair as a hoax. Not as though that would be widely reported or anything. It’s not in line with official propaganda. I refer interested readers to Noam Chomsky’s ‘Necessary Illusions’, available, among other places, in the CBC Atrium on Front St in Toronto, for an expose of how this media dynamic plays out. While his concern is to apply his propaganda model of the media to state-sponsored terror, it applies equally well to consumer propaganda. Yuo may also watch the documentary here.

Flashback: EU Council Health Chair: Swine Flu Pandemic Was A Hoax | One small needle, a world of trouble – Mom goes numb from H1N1 shot | Canada sends 5 million doses of H1N1 vaccine to WHO | WHO to examine its H1N1 response | Flu Inc.: How vaccines became big business |H1N1 ‘not done yet’: Canada’s top doctor | Swine flu pandemic ‘less lethal than expected’ | Only 30% of Ontario residents have H1N1 shot | Santa Claus vaccinated in Montreal | UK: Millions more than thought have already had swine flu, Government scientists say | Dr. Richard Schabas – How they larded H1N1 facts with fear | Push is on to inoculate everyone against H1N1, Ontarians stay away in droves | UK Doctors say most Britons reject swine flu vaccine | Swine flu cases drop in England | H1N1 overplayed by media, public health: MDs | Elite Council Recording Suggests Creating False Scarcity To Drive Up Demand For H1N1 Vaccine | WHO pandemic definition too broad, doctor contends | Vaccine scarcity claims don’t add up | ‘No reason’ to delay seasonal flu shots, global health panel says | Flu Season Has Already Peaked in US, Little Benefit to H1N1 Jab: Study | Flu vaccine shortage expected to last a week | Mass Rejection Of Swine Flu Vaccine Continues Throughout Europe | GlaxoSmithKline profit rises on flu drug | Swine Flu Scam Reaches New Heights With Obama’s Emergency Declaration | US Government Hijacks Kids TV To Propagandize For Swine Flu Shots | UK: National Health Service frontline staff shun H1N1 vaccine | Swine flu death rate similar to seasonal flu: expert | Swine flu unlikely to become superbug | UK: Half of all pregnant women will refuse swine flu jab, poll reveals | UK Government Swine Flu Advisor On Vaccine Maker Payroll | Swine flu: How scared should we be? | Top Epidemiologist Slams Swine Flu Fearmongering | Lessons of 1976: swine flu, fear, mass vaccinations, wasted millions

CBC News
February 10, 2010

Medical officials in Ontario say the province has likely avoided the ‘third wave’ of the HINI virus.

Public health officials said Tuesday the immunization program, combined with the number of people who have been exposed to the virus, has boosted the level of immunity in the community and the spread of H1N1 is dwindling.

An estimated five-million people in the province have gotten a flu shot – about 700,000 of Toronto’s 2.6 million residents among them.

Ontario’s acting medical officer of health Dr. David Williams says with almost 40 per cent of the people in Ontario having been vaccinated, the numbers of H1N1 infections have dropped to about a dozen a week across the province and only about one or two in Toronto.

“We think the vaccine had an affect on curtailing that second wave very abruptly,” said Williams, “and of course we are optimistic it will avoid a whole third wave.”

In the past, when there have been serious outbreaks of flu, many health authorities have reported a third wave of the virus appearing in the spring.

“I would say if there is any third wave, or further activity for HINI in the coming months, it’s likely to be very much smaller than we’ve seen in the past,” Williams said.

Public Health will be monitoring the number of cases closely in the coming weeks to see if there is any increase.

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Your money, well spent on convincing you to enjoy giving away your money. (Someone go look up the ad agency responsible for this campaign, squeeze a little, and corruption will likely come oozing out of that deal too). You’re paying to be propagandized and it’s all perfectly legal.

Flashback: Ont. deficit could linger for years: McGuinty | HST bill passes, 13% tax starts July 1 | Poll: HST equals Hated Sales Tax | Tories, Liberals, Bloc approve HST for Ontario and B.C. | Anti-HST protest at Ontario legislature spills onto Toronto streets | More HST debate fallout after Ontario Legislature sit-in | Liberals to support HST bill | Tory HST protest halts Ontario question period | Federal HST tax bill to be introduced, plays politics with law | Ontario Tories walk out to protest lack of hearings on HST | Contentious HST bill introduced in Ontario | Food under $4 to be HST-free, Ontario says | McGuinty says HST doubters exist in Liberal ranks | If passed, HST locked in through 2012 | New HST tax is fair, McGuinty says | Thousands rally against coming HST tax in BC | Flaherty offers taxpayer-funded bribe to adopt HST tax, holdout provinces demur | BC, like Ontario, moves to harmonize taxes | Ontario Liberals pressing to hide new ‘harmonized’ tax in prices | Ontario to merge GST, PST in ‘harmonized’ tax hike | EU approves free-trade talks with Canada | Canada expects EU free-trade talks soon: Stockwell Day | Harper, Sarkozy vow to work toward Canada-EU deal | CD Howe Institute backs Canada-EU deal, deep integration | Towards a new world order: Canada-EU trade proposal rivals scope of NAFTA

The Canadian Press
February 8, 2010

Ontario’s controversial move to harmonize sales taxes will be part of a new $1.6-million government ad campaign that’s poised to hit newsstands on Thursday.

The print ads, which highlight an income tax cut that took effect Jan. 1, will invite readers to “take a closer look at Ontario’s new tax package” by visiting a government website.

More than 400,000 people have visited the website, which will help residents figure out how the tax changes will affect them and their businesses, Revenue Minister John Wilkinson said Monday in announcing the campaign.

“This is the largest tax reform in over 40 years,” he said during a Liberal caucus retreat in downtown Ottawa.

“So it’s really important for people to make sure that there’s a source of information that they can go to get the facts.”

There is “misinformation out there” about harmonizing the eight per cent provincial sales tax with the five per cent federal GST next July, Wilkinson added.

Ontario’s opposition parties are bitterly opposed to the HST, saying it will hurt people who are already struggling during the economic downturn.

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This all sounds vaguely familiar, don’t you think?.Commentators – like idiot Palin – are running around in the American media with their neocon talking points scrawled on their palms about how Obama’s poll numbers would be improved if he ‘toughened up’ a little. So here we go again. Can we please break our conditioning and step outside of the left/right mind trap before the war machine in the Persian Gulf is loosed under left cover? It isn’t going to be any better an outcome if it’s Obama and his advisors – the same advisors providing advice to all presidents – pushing the button. Can we please not do this?

Flashback: Western powers voice scepticism over Iran uranium offer | U.S. deploys land and sea-based missile shield in the Gulf to deter attack from Iran | UK: Tony Blair attempts to shift focus to Iran as ‘global threat’ at Iraq war inquiry | Iran admits jailed protesters were beaten to death | Iranian commanders assassinated, Iran fingers Western intelligence | IAEA members question Iran nuclear intel authenticity | US military could strike Iran, but at what cost? | Another War in the Works | Iran to allow nuclear site inspection | Iran plays into Obama’s hands with disclosure of nuclear facility | UN approves nuclear ‘disarmament’ resolution | Tens of thousands march in Iran | Obama scales back missile defence shield in Europe | Israel ‘will attack Iran this year’ if West does not cripple Tehran with sanctions | Brookings Publication mentions possibility of ‘Horrific Provocation’ to Trigger Iran Invasion | Blast at Iranian mosque raises tensions in run-up to presidential election | Netanyahu: We may be forced to attack Iran | Proposed Missile Shield seen as Provocation by Russia | Neo-cons still preparing for Iran attack | Russia threatens to ’strike’ Poland in wake of U.S. missile plan | Cheney Considered False Flag Operation to Justify War with Iran | US scales up covert destabilization efforts in Iran, continues funding ‘al-Qaeda’ | Israelis ‘rehearse Iran attack’ | Israeli official says attack on Iran ‘unavoidable’ | Bush ‘plans Iran air strike by August’ | U.S. Navy starts exercises in Gulf waters | U.S. National Intelligence Estimate: Iran stopped nuclear weapons work in 2003 | Cheney Orders Media To Sell Attack On Iran | U.S. sending third aircraft carrier to the Middle East | US aircraft carriers in Persian Gulf | Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh: US Indirectly Funding Al-Qaeda Linked Sunni Groups in Move to Counter Iran | Former CIA Officer – US Plans Nuclear Attack On Iran

The Associated Press
February 8, 2010

Members of the United Nations are calling for new sanctions against Iran after it made formal notification Monday that it would enrich uranium to higher levels.

Iran insists the move is meant only to provide fuel for its research reactor.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner accused Iran of “blackmail,” according to media reports.

“Alas, we can’t apply anything other than sanctions since negotiation is not possible,” Kouchner is reported to have said.

“If the international community will stand together and bring pressure to bear on the Iranian government, I believe there is still time for sanctions and pressure to work,” U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said at a media event in Rome on Sunday, one day before Iran made its official notification to the UN.

Iranian envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh told The Associated Press that he informed the International Atomic Energy Agency of the decision to enrich at least some of its low-enriched uranium stockpile to 20 per cent, considered the threshold value for highly enriched uranium.

Soltanieh, who represents Iran at the Vienna-based IAEA, also said that the UN agency’s inspectors now overseeing enrichment to low levels would be able to stay on site to fully monitor the process.

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