Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
Obama Mulls ‘Indefinite Detention’ of Terror Suspects
May 14th, 2009Via: AFP: As part of its plans to close Guantanamo Bay, the Obama administration is considering holding some of the detainees indefinitely and without trial on US soil, US media reported Thursday. President Barack Obama’s “administration is weighing plans to detain some terror suspects on US soil — indefinitely and without trial — as part […]
Spitzer on New York Fed: “The Most Powerful Financial Institution Most Americans Know Nothing About”
May 12th, 2009Via: Slate: A quasi-independent, public-private body, the New York Fed is the first among equals of the 12 regional Fed branches. Unlike the Washington Federal Reserve Board of Governors, or the other regional fed branches, the N.Y. Fed is active in the markets virtually every day, changing the critical interest rates that determine the liquidity […]
U.S. Federal Reserve Inspector General on Who Received the Bailout Money
May 12th, 2009Via: YouTube: Rep. Alan Grayson asks the Federal Reserve Inspector General about the trillions of dollars lent or spent by the Federal Reserve and where it went, and the trillions of off balance sheet obligations. Inspector General Elizabeth Coleman responds that the IG does not know and is not tracking where this money is.
G20 Police ‘Used Undercover Men to Incite Crowds’
May 11th, 2009Via: Guardian: An MP who was involved in last month’s G20 protests in London is to call for an investigation into whether the police used agents provocateurs to incite the crowds. Liberal Democrat Tom Brake says he saw what he believed to be two plain-clothes police officers go through a police cordon after presenting their […]
Telegraph: MPs’ Expenses
May 10th, 2009Someone has leaked a series of documents to the Telegraph that detail MPs’ living expenses. It looks like pretty standard stuff to me; possibly suitable for your files on political fat bastardism. Via: Telegraph: The Telegraph’s investigation into how politicians – from Gordon Brown and his Cabinet to backbenchers of all parties – exploit the […]
UK: Pilots Refuse to Take Part in National Identity Card Trials
May 6th, 2009Via: Guardian: Airline pilots are to become the first group to refuse to take part in the national identity scheme when compulsory trials start at Manchester and London City airports this autumn. The British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa ), which represents more than 80% of commercial airline pilots, is to mount a legal challenge to […]
Ashton Lundeby, a Sixteen-Year-Old American, Has Been Disappeared by Homeland Security
May 6th, 2009UPDATE: This Looks Like a More Conventional Federal Case Now Via: Wired: The boy’s mother, Annette Lundeby, has even acknowledged in interviews that her son has been formally charged, has a court-appointed attorney, and has already made appearances in front of a judge. — Long ago, I took a class called Soviet Society and Culture. […]
Thought Police Muscle Up in Britain
May 6th, 2009Via: The Australian: BRITAIN appears to be evolving into the first modern soft totalitarian state. As a sometime teacher of political science and international law, I do not use the term totalitarian loosely. There are no concentration camps or gulags but there are thought police with unprecedented powers to dictate ways of thinking and sniff […]
Bush Library: $100 Million In 100 Days
May 6th, 2009That’s a whole lotta copies of The Pet Goat. Via: CBS News: George W. Bush may have left office with just 22 percent approval rating, but the former president certainly still has his fans: According to Time, Mr. Bush’s backers have raised more than $100 million for his planned presidential library at Southern Methodist University […]
Tiananmen: The Flame Burns On
May 4th, 2009Via: Guardian: Twenty years ago tanks rolled into Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to crush the biggest pro-democracy movement in history. Hundreds were killed, thousands jailed and many fled to escape persecution. Here exiled leaders of the student revolution tell their remarkable stories and reveal how, after being forced to build new lives, they remain haunted by […]
