Ottawa’s media rules muzzling federal scientists, say observers

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Dr. Andrew Weaver with the Climate Change 2007 report in Victoria, BC on Friday, October 12, 2007.

Photograph by: Ray Smith, Victoria Times Colonist

The Harper government has tightened the muzzle on federal scientists, going so far as to control when and what they can say about floods at the end of the last ice age.

Natural Resources Canada scientists were told this spring they need “pre-approval” from Minister Christian Paradis’ office to speak with national and international journalists. Their “media lines” also need ministerial approval, say documents obtained by Postmedia News through access-to-information legislation.

The documents say the “new” rules went into force in March and reveal how they apply to not only to contentious issues including the oilsands, but benign subjects such as floods that occurred 13,000 years ago.

Ottawa’s media rules muzzling federal scientists, say observers

Le Carre on 'the Russification of Britain

Ex MI5 / MI6 man John Le Carre talks to Radio4's Today program about his new book. He then goes on to talk about how the Muslim boogeyman is being used to erode democracy much more than the IRA ever was.

Le Carre on 'the Russification of Britain

Ex MI5 / MI6 man John Le Carre talks to Radio4's Today program about his new book. He then goes on to talk about how the Muslim boogeyman is being used to erode democracy much more than the IRA ever was.

Oldest Marijuana Stash Found

Dec. 3, 2008 -- Nearly two pounds of still-green plant material found in a 2,700-year-old grave in the Gobi Desert has just been identified as the world's oldest marijuana stash, according to a paper in the latest issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany.
A barrage of tests proves the marijuana possessed potent psychoactive properties and casts doubt on the theory that the ancients only grew the plant for hemp in order to make clothing, rope and other objects.
They apparently were getting high too.
Oldest Marijuana Stash Found: Discovery News

Obama Has Signalled His Coming Complete Surrender To Zionism And Its Lobby

Alanhart.net

He did it with seven words. “Ultimately the U.S. cannot impose a solution.”

He was speaking at the White House the day before the start of the new round of direct talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, after he had met with them and Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah II. (In my last post I anticipated Obama saying at the point of his complete surrender that “America can’t want peace more than the parties.” He also said that – ahead of schedule!)

Today there is a growing number of seriously well informed people of all faiths and none (including me) who believe there will only be peace if it is imposed.

Obama Has Signalled His Coming Complete Surrender To Zionism And Its Lobby

DJ Green Lantern (Feat. Eminem) - Bush Knocked Down The Towe

How Fox North became Harper's priority | rabble.ca

Remember the attack ad the Paul Martin Liberals used in the 2006 federal election campaign that backfired so badly it helped galvanize Canadians to turf them out instead?

Aimed at terrifying Canadians about the militaristic and undemocratic impulses of Stephen Harper's Conservatives, the Liberal ad intoned over a war drumbeat: "Soldiers with guns... In our cities... In Canada... We did not make this up."

Today the tables could be abruptly turned on the Conservatives with this far more sinister message: "The prime minister's office. In a first-world democracy. Controlling a major media network. We did not make this up."

How Fox North became Harper's priority | rabble.ca

“Sowing Light” Part 1: Bringing Solar Power to Rural Venezuela

By James Suggett

Venezuela Analysis

Tuesday, Aug 31, 2010

Good-news story.

“We live in paradise. Look, the people are very tranquil, the kids are growing, and we cultivate food without contamination because we know how to produce natural fertilizer from worms. And now, with solar electricity, it’s like a dream,” said the Venezuelan farmer Ramón Dávila with a smile, his solid stature and rough, wrinkled skin bearing the signs of six decades of rural life in the remote Andean village of El Quinó.

“Sowing Light” Part 1: Bringing Solar Power to Rural Venezuela | Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela |Axisoflogic.com

A good year for Québec solidaire | rabble.ca

In the past year, Amir Kadir, Québec solidaire's first elected MNA, has become one Québec's most popular personalities. He has won plaudits from all observers and, more importantly, from the public for his performance in and out of the National Assembly. His widely publicized positions denouncing political corruption among the ruling Liberals, supporting the battles against the government's spring austerity budget, or lambasting mining and pharmaceutical corporations, have won him a growing recognition among working people and the wider public

A good year for Québec solidaire | rabble.ca

Endless War, Humanitarian Crisis, and Perpetual Resistance: U.S. Foreign Policy in the 21st Century

The unnamed war: what's happening in the media shadows.

 In 2009, the mainstream U.S. media reported with satisfaction that the Pakistani government had finally responded positively to the United States and NATO’s demands[1] for an aggressive military policy aimed at depriving the resurgent Taliban of “safe havens” in Pakistan.[2] The subsequent offensive, featuring a Pakistani invasion of these areas and aerial assaults by the U.S. and its NATO allies, and has become just another unexceptional element of the open-ended military campaign formerly known as GWOT (the “Global War on Terror”), but which, under the Obama administration has continued without a name. It receives little attention from the mainstream media, which is focusing its limited attention on Afghanistan, to the exclusion of the other “hot wars” the U.S. is currently conducting in Iraq and Pakistan.

Endless War, Humanitarian Crisis, and Perpetual Resistance: U.S. Foreign Policy in the 21st Century

Harper's Christmas Card: him looking at pictures of himself

Harper’s $130 Million Chapter 11 Giveaway

Posted by Jim Stanford
Canada’s federal government made an important announcement this week. It was kept deliberately quiet: with a news release issued at 4:45 pm on a calm Tuesday in the middle of the late-summer news “dead zone.” But it should set alarm bells ringing for anyone concerned with the anti-democratic direction of global trade law.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government reached a $130 million out-of-court settlement with the bankruptcy trustees overseeing the restructuring of AbitibiBowater Inc., a failed forestry and paper giant. The settlement relates to a claim that Abitibi brought against Canada under NAFTA’s notorious Chapter 11 process. This process is a bizarre kangaroo court in which investors from one NAFTA partner (and only investors - normal people aren’t allowed in) can sue another NAFTA government for actions which are deemed to break NAFTA’s broad investment rights provisions. If a Chapter 11 tribunal rules against the offending government, it can order damages be paid to the aggrieved investor.


The Progressive Economics Forum » Harper’s $130 Million Chapter 11 Giveaway

Luke Powell - Photographs Fine Art Landscapes Afghanistan

A beautiful photo-essay from the mid-70's. About 100 photos.

Luke Powell - Photographs Fine Art Landscapes Afghanistan Pakistan Ladakh Middle East Central Asia Travel Muslim Islam Palestine Egypt Vermont Ceylon Sri Lanka Afghan women children

Monsanto in Gates' Clothing?

by Eric Holt Gimenez

If you had any doubts about where the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is really placing its bets, AGRA Watch's recent announcement of the Foundation's investment of $23.1 million in 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock should put them to rest. Genetic engineering: full speed ahead.

Monsanto in Gates' Clothing? The Emperor's New GMOs | CommonDreams.org

#26: Disband NATO | Dangerous Ideas | Big Think

It's been over 20 years since the Berlin Wall fell, yet the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO), a military group which was originally created to defend Western Europe from Russia, continues to exist, with 28 member states pledged to collectively defend one another in the face of outside aggression.

MIT linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky thinks it's time to disband the organization, which he believes is now an "international intervention force" that only exists to project U.S. military power on the other side of the globe

#26: Disband NATO | Dangerous Ideas | Big Think