Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
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 […]
DHS Sets Guidelines For Possible Swine Flu Quarantines
May 1st, 2009Via: CBS News: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has sent a memo to some health care providers noting procedures to be followed if the swine flu outbreak eventually makes quarantines necessary. DHS Assistant Secretary Bridger McGaw circulated the swine flu memo, which was obtained by CBSNews.com, on Monday night. It says: “The Department of […]
Top Senate Democrat: Bankers “Own” the U.S. Congress
April 30th, 2009Update your Captain Obvious file. Via: Salon: Sen. Dick Durbin, on a local Chicago radio station this week, blurted out an obvious truth about Congress that, despite being blindingly obvious, is rarely spoken: “And the banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created […]
