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Stephen Harper continues to say we are watching, and the global (never a word about the Canadian) economy is fragile. And that they are working very hard. But Mr. Harper and his cabinet never elaborate on what they are working on.

In the month of June our trade deficit widened to 1.1 billion, and Canada's merchandise exports fell 2.5 per cent. Then in July we lost 139,000 full time jobs.

In these same two months our government has spent 1.2 billion on the G20/G8 summits, announced the spending of 16 billion on 65 new fighter jets, and an estimated 9 billion on new jails.

The G20/G8 Summits did not help anything with our economy. The new fighter jets are being purchased in a time that Canadian soldiers are exiting from Afghanistan, and our country has no creditable threat from any nation or groups.

The plan for the new prisons is the biggest fiasco. Crime rates in Canada are down, but according to Stockwell Day, the new jails are for the unreported crimes...

In just those three examples, we are spending nearly 30 billion dollars on unnecessary and unjustified things, while our economy just keeps slipping further and further into the abyss.

We cannot forget the Canada Economic Action Plan though. I am going to use Brantford for an example on this.
In Brantford nearly 25% of our economy and jobs are in the manufacturing industry.
Source

In the last few years our manufacturing base has lost a large number of jobs with the closures of factories like Patriot Forge, Dekka, and ITML just to name a few.

So what has been done by the action plan to help this. Well some of the projects include. Renovations to city housing, road repairs, Renovations to recreational facilities, and a new commercial hanger for the small airport that we have.

Can you make any sense of this?

I can. Our economy is going the way of every other nation that gets it's money supply from private banks. The Canadian Economic Action Plan is nothing more then a sad attempt to make it look like something is being done to fix the problem. When in reality it is only prolonging the inevitable, if not making it worse.

Our government is spending money on new military hardware, and on new prisons because they know this. They are expecting for things to get bad. Couple this with the national disasters in China and India right now, that could potentially cause major food shortages and this could be coming very soon.

There is no fix in sight other then abolishing the privately run money and credit system that we are under, but most of the people have become way to trained to accomplish this.

Think about it. Why would a government spend that kind of money on military hardware, and jails if they did not feel that they are going to be needed in the near future?

Yahoo News

Buried among the 92,000 classified documents released Sunday by WikiLeaks is some intriguing evidence that the U.S. military in Afghanistan has adopted a PR strategy that got it into trouble in Iraq: paying local media outlets to run friendly stories.

Several reports from Army psychological operations units and provincial reconstruction teams (also known as PRTs, civilian-military hybrids tasked with rebuilding Afghanistan) show that local Afghan radio stations were under contract to air content produced by the United States. Other reports show U.S. military personnel apparently referring to Afghan reporters as "our journalists" and directing them in how to do their jobs.

Such close collaboration between local media and U.S. forces has been a headache for the Pentagon in the past: In 2005, Pentagon contractor the Lincoln Group was caught paying Iraqi newspapers to run stories written by American soldiers, causing the United States considerable embarrassment.

In one of the WikiLeaks documents, a PRT member reports delivering "12 hours of PSYOP Radio Content Programming" to two radio stations in the province of Ghazni in 2008, and paying one of them "$3,900 for Radio Content Programming air time for the month of October":



"The PRT provided 12 hours of PSYOP Radio Content Programming to Radio Ghaznwyan FM Station and Radio Ghazni AM/FM Station for week of 6-12 Nov. Topics included Afghanistan History, Law, and Human Rights in both Dari and Pashto, and a spreadsheet with the specific radio content programming for the week of 6-12 Nov will be forward sepcor to SPARTAN. Additionally, PRT paid Radio Ghaznwyan $3,900 for Radio Content Programming air time for the month of October."


Radio Ghaznawiyaan was established and funded by the Agency for International Development, but USAID has described it in the past as a success story for local independent journalism launched with American help. So its listeners may be surprised to learn that it is an outlet for paid U.S. "PSYOP radio content."

Another message, from 2008, records a meeting that members of the Bagram PRT held with Rahimullah Samander, the news director of the Wakht News Agency and president of the Afghan Independent Journalists Association. Samander, the memo says, "proposed a partnership with the PRT" and "offered to include PRT news articles and photos on his news service":


"Kapisa team met with a Kabul radio representative at the Kapisa TV and Radio Station. Met with Rahimullah Samander, news director for Wakht News Agency and president of the Afghan Independent Journalists Association. He provided information about his organizations and proposed a partnership with the PRT. He offered to include PRT news articles and photos on his news service. The PRT IO recommended a conference including Afghan and US military journalists to collaborate and share ideas. Samander hopes to increase the presence of his agency in Kapisa province."


Another 2008 memo records a similar meeting among psychological operations soldiers, Jalalabad PRT members, and representatives of Radio Television Afghanistan and the Shaiq Network. Both of these news organizations were directly contracted by psychological operations units to air friendly content:
The TF has a new PSYOP contract with RTA and a continuing PSYOP contract with Shaiq Network; additionally, these are key IO mediums. The purpose of the meetings were to introduce new HQ PSYOP members to the RTA and Shaiq managers, provide initial payment for the RTA contract, receive a PRT Advertising Campaign contract bid proposal from Shaiq (for the pending garbage removal initiative in Jalalabad), and tour both facilities."


The report, written by an Army information operations officer, describes the Afghan journalists as "very pro-CF [coalition forces]" and surmises that "there is a lot they are willing to do for the CF."

Two other messages seem to show U.S. soldiers referring to local Afghan media as extensions of their own units rather than independent reporters. In 2007, after insurgents attacked an Afghan National Police convoy, a member of Task Force Rock wrote that "we ... had our journalist conduct an interview with the Afghan National Police District Chief who condemned the attacks on their fellow countrymen." In another 2007 message, a Task Force Diablo soldier reported that after Taliban gunmen assassinated a local businessman, leading village elders to question the Afghan police's ability to keep the peace, "we were able to send the journalist in with our cultural advisor to speak to the elders."

An inquiry after the Lincoln Group revelations found that paying foreign news outlets to run friendly stories did not violate Department of Defense policy or U.S. law, though the practice seems to have been discontinued in Iraq.

A Defense Department spokesperson did not immediately return an e-mail seeking comment.

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards are ready to provide a military escort to cargo ships trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza, a representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday.

"Iran's Revolutionary Guards naval forces are fully prepared to escort the peace and freedom convoys to Gaza with all their powers and capabilities," Ali Shirazi, Khamenei's representative inside the Revolutionary Guards, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency.

Any intervention by the Iranian military would be considered highly provocative by Israel which accuses Iran of supplying weapons to Hamas, the Islamist movement which rules Gaza.

Iran does not recognize the Israeli state and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has often predicted its imminent demise.

Israel and its ally the United States decline to rule out military action against Iran if it looks like acquiring nuclear arms capability, something Israel sees as a threat to its survival.

Tehran says its nuclear program is for energy generation and medical purposes and calls its nuclear-armed adversaries hypocrites for trying to block its technological progress.

The Iranian state news agency IRNA said Sunday Iran would try to send humanitarian aid to Gaza in ships under an Iranian flag. It said Iran had decided to ditch previous plans to send its aid in ships flying the flag of another state.

"The Iranian humanitarian assistance will include foodstuffs, medicines and medical equipment," the head of Iran's Red Crescent Society, Abdolraouf Abidzadeh, was quoted as saying. He gave no more details.

Last Monday Israeli troops killed nine activists on board one ship in a convoy trying to deliver aid to Gaza, sparking international outrage, especially in Muslim countries.

Another ship was boarded Saturday and pro-Palestinian activists have promised more as they challenge the blockade imposed four years ago with the stated aim of stopping arms getting to Hamas.

Shirazi said Iran should encourage more international efforts to break the blockade. "We should expose our enemies to a spontaneous global action and not let them achieve their heinous goals," he said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would continue to stop ships reaching the shore and creating "an Iranian port in Gaza," a reference to Iran's support for Hamas.

The Revolutionary Guards, with their own navy, air force and command structure separate from the regular armed forces, are seen as fiercely loyal to the supreme leader.

"If the supreme leader issues an order for this then the Revolutionary Guard naval forces will do their best to secure the ships," Shirazi said. "It is Iran's duty to defend the innocent people of Gaza."

Yahoo News

Downtown Toronto got a taste of security preparation for the upcoming G20 summit Tuesday morning as two military helicopters completed a test flight around the Metro Toronto Convention Centre before landing in front of the CN Tower.

The CH-146 Griffon helicopters were spotted at about 9 a.m. circling the area above the convention centre, which will play host to the international meeting in June.

Canadian Forces Sgt. Maj. Sylvain Gallant said the flight was to test the capability of the landing area between the CN Tower and the convention centre.

The helicopters were flown in from CFB Borden, looping around the convention centre, the CN Tower, and nearby condos before landing on a stretch of grass on the south side of the CN Tower.



After the landing, witnesses reported seeing men wearing black suits getting out of the helicopters and walking towards the centre.

Gallant said the exercise included practice in transporting VIPs to the site.

A handful of Toronto police officers were also on site during the exercise.

Source:The Toronto Star

Article by: Douglas Quan
Canwest News Service

They're big. They're bad-ass. And they could soon be barrelling down a street near you.

Numerous law-enforcement agencies across the country have recently acquired armoured vehicles for their tactical operations.

The Ottawa Police Service on Wednesday unveiled their BearCat — sort of like a Hummer on steroids. And RCMP in British Columbia announced this week that they had acquired two six-wheeled, all-terrain vehicles from the Canadian Forces.



Armoured vehicles are also in use in Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Victoria and several other municipalities.

Police forces say these bulletproof vehicles — none of which are equipped with any artillery — provide an extra layer of protection for officers when responding to dangerous situations, such as gun calls or high-risk search warrants.

Authorities say they also help protect the public in situations such as in hostage-takings.

"It's certainly a comfort to be able to deal with the calls we go to using the protection of a vehicle like that," said Ottawa Police Const. Jim Hutchins.

The Ottawa service purchased its Lenco BearCat for $341,147. The vehicle's oversized tires allow it to go off-road and its height offers improved visibility, police said.

The vehicle will be used by the department's tactical team, which responds to about 50 incidents each year and is tasked with protecting Canadian government buildings, embassies and consulates. The team also responds to incidents at the Ottawa International Airport.

Unlike Ottawa's armoured vehicle, which was manufactured for police use, the B.C. RCMP's armoured vehicles — known as TAV IIs and which can travel up to 120 km/h — were originally designed for military use and have since been retrofitted.

The vehicles, which were acquired free of charge, are necessary because of Metro Vancouver's escalating gang violence, said RCMP spokesman Sgt. Peter Thiessen.

"Gang members are well-armed. Many times we have to be in a position to respond to that and ensure our safety as police officers," he said. "We know what these individuals are capable of doing."

Thiessen said an armoured vehicle was deployed earlier this week when officers went to execute a search warrant at a home in Surrey, B.C. The occupants in the home came out peacefully, he said.

Is it possible that the mere sight of the vehicle could make criminals think twice about engaging police?

"Visually, it is an aggressive looking piece of equipment," Thiessen said. "It does look intimidating."

Robert Gordon, director of Simon Fraser University's school of criminology and a former police officer, says armoured vehicles might make sense in the United States where there's a wider availability of guns, but he wonders whether they're necessary in Canada.

"What kind of urban warfare do police services think they're going to be encountering?" he said. "I think there is an element of this equipment being purchased because it's new toys for boys."

Gordon said, in his opinion, the line between civil police service and military service in the country is blurring.

"We're talking about the streets you and I occupy. We're not talking about Kandahar," he said. "What will they do next? Drive them into the fronts of people's houses?"

Staff Sgt. Kirk McCallum of the Calgary Police Service, which acquired a Canadian-made Armet Balkan MK7 for $250,000 in 2008, said Gordon's remarks are short-sighted.

He said his agency's armoured vehicle is used on a weekly basis.

It is not uncommon for officers to drive the vehicle, which is equipped with lights and sirens, right onto someone's lawn, he said.

"We have to go into those dangerous situations. This let's us safely do that," he said.

McCallum cited the remarks of Alberta provincial court Judge Peter Ayotte, who led an inquiry into the 2004 shooting death of RCMP Cpl. James Galloway by a mentally-ill man west of Edmonton. In his recommendations, Ayotte wrote that having access to an armoured vehicle "almost surely" would have prevented Galloway's death.

"What value do you put on the cost of a life?" McCallum said.

Here are two videos that show how great the 2010 Olympics is for Canadians.