Following the adoption of legislation by the government of Quebec to roll back civil liberties and prevent students from protesting against tuition hikes, Montreal experienced two nights of violence over the weekend. Three hundred people were arrested on Sunday night. Although the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec and the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec plan to challenge the draconian law this week in court, its implementation by the National Assembly Friday night reveals that the Quebec government is determined to shut down protest over severe tuition increases. “This is much larger than just tuition fees, this law attacks our freedom and the foundation of our society,” said Marc Antoine Cloutier. More than 150,000 people have signed a petition opposing the new police state legislation. “We have serious concerns about this bill and the bill infringes many of the fundamental rights of our citizens,” added Louis Masson, Bâtonnier of the Bar.

Presidential candidate Ron Paul swept the board at the Minnesota State convention this past weekend, winning 12 of the 13 delegates to the Republican National Convention and effectively taking complete control of the party in the state. Congressman Paul would have won all of the open delegate slots, for the fact that the 13th went to former presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, only after a Paul supporter withdrew his name from the ballot. Earlier in the year, a well organized cadre of Paul supporters won 20 of 24 delegates at district conventions, meaning that in total the Paul campaign has secured 32 of the state’s 40 national delegates. The achievement once again affirms Paul’s delegate-attainment strategy, and substantially increases the prospect for the Congressman to be able to greatly influence the party platform at the National Convention in Tampa this August.

The House of Representatives has approved an amendment to the draconian National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that will limit the Department of Defense from using data collected by unmanned spy drones against Americans. The Amendment, introduced by Congressman Landry (R-LA), will prohibit information collected by DoD drones without a warrant from being used as evidence in court. The amendment, was approved early Thursday afternoon along with 19 other en bloc amendments, reads: “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, information acquired by an unmanned aerial vehicle operated by the Department of Defense may not be admitted in a Federal court, State court, or court of a political subdivision of a State as evidence against a United States citizen unless such information was obtained by such unmanned aerial vehicle pursuant to a court order.”

The establishment media hastily seized on yesterday’s explosive story about a literary publication listing Barack Obama’s birthplace as Kenya in an effort to claim that the 1991 brochure was the “origin” of the entire ‘birther’ issue. In reality, evidence that Obama was born in the African country is abundant. A literary agent’s promotional text for a 1991 brochure released yesterday by Breitbart.com states Obama was “born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.” Yahoo News, along with a deluge of other mainstream news outlets, responded by reporting that the document was potentially the “source” of the birther controversy and had merely been a mistake. The literary agent who wrote the description, Miriam Goderich, now works with Dystel & Goderich agency, which lists Obama as one of its clients. Unsurprising therefore that Goderich hastily claimed listing Obama’s birthplace as Kenya was “nothing more than a fact checking error.”

Despite the fact that the TSA attracts more bad publicity than any other federal agency in existence for its routine harassment of the traveling public and its penchant for hiring criminals, Congressman Mike Rogers has called for the TSA to get even “tougher” in the name of preventing the next terrorist attack. “TSA likes to talk about their successes and I’m proud of their successes — we haven’t had another successful attack in 10 years. The problem is, we have only have to miss one and it’s a disaster,” Rogers (R-Ala.) said on CNN’s “Starting Point.” “We want TSA to become smarter, leaner and tougher.” It’s somewhat difficult to grasp precisely how the TSA should heed Rogers’ call to get “tougher” with people traveling through airports and other transportation hubs which are now festooned with TSA agents.

The United States and Saudi Arabia have devised a new plan to destroy Syria after they did not reach their goals by creating unrest in the country for more than one year… … According to the report, after the failure of all efforts to topple the Syrian regime, Washington and Riyadh are devising a new plan. The plan has two goals, firstly to show that no peace will take place in Syria without the US consent, and secondly to tire out the Syrian government’s supporters to give their backing for the administration. The US and Saudi Arabia have reached the conclusion that the Syrian army cannot be divided and that incumbent President Bashar Assad is in full control of the military. They also know the Syrian security has good control over the entire country even areas where the opposition sways influence.

Through the Beyond the Border agreement released in December 2011, the U.S. and Canada are implementing initiatives that are working towards establishing a North American security perimeter. This includes expanding trusted traveler programs, as well as enhancing integrated law enforcement and information sharing cooperation which has raised many privacy concerns that have yet to be properly addressed. There are questions surrounding the Conservative government’s Bill C-38, the Budget Implementation Act that also contains changes related to the U.S.-Canada Beyond the Border action plan. This includes ratifying and making the Shiprider a legal and permanent program which will require amending the Criminal Code, along with the RCMP and Customs Act. The joint initiative officially known as the Integrated Cross-Border Maritime Law Enforcement Operations first began as a pilot project. It allows RCMP and U.S. Coast Guard officers to operate vessels together and pursue criminals in the waters of both countries. The Council of Canadians reported that the NDP is demanding that the Shiprider policing program be taken out of budget implementation bill. Brian Masse, the NDP border critic is pushing for separate legislation and pointed out that, “it’s totally irresponsible to have it as part of the Budget Implementation Act.” He added, “There’s significant policing issues that really warrant a standalone bill. If it was so important that they did all the fanfare for it, why doesn’t it warrant its own process?” The proposed changes could have serious sovereignty implications with regards to accountability, due process and civil rights and therefore, need to be fully scrutinized.

As the mainstream media continues to idiotically blather on about Ron Paul “quitting”, the campaign is forging ahead, today releasing a memo outlining Paul’s strategy for the GOP national convention. “Let me be very clear,” writes chief strategist Jesse Benton in the opening lines of the memo, “Dr. Paul is NOT dropping out or suspending his campaign.” “As Dr. Paul has previously stated, he is in this race all the way to the Republican National Convention in Tampa this August,” Benton adds, noting that the campaign will look to maximize the resources it has, thus it will not fruitlessly pour money into the remaining primary states. “We will continue to run strong programs at district and state [party] conventions to win more delegates and alternate delegates to the national convention.” Benton continues, noting that the campaign will enter a “new phase” on Friday at the Minnesota state GOP convention, where Paul will make an appearance.

Obama gay marriage support seen as world precedent … President Barack Obama’s announcement Wednesday that he supports gay marriage boosted the hopes of gay rights groups around the world that other leaders will follow his example, though opponents denounced his switch as a shameless appeal for votes … – AP Back on the handsome campus, studded with Tudor brick buildings and manicured fields, Mitt Romney spotted something he thought did not belong at a school where the boys wore ties and carried briefcases. John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. … “That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend. – Washington Post According to the authors, homosexuality found in the Nazi Party contributed to the extreme militarism of Nazi Germany. The title of the book, as well as the book itself, is a reference to a book by Richard Plant called The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals, a book detailing homophobia in the Nazi Party and the homosexual victims of Nazism. – Wikipedia

US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice reacted to yesterday’s deadly bombings in Damascus by issuing a chilling and thinly veiled threat that NATO-backed terrorists would carry out more attacks unless President Bashar al-Assad stepped down. Following the attacks, which targeted the Military Intelligence Centre and killed mostly Syrian security force members, Rice seized upon the carnage to proclaim, “The longer Assad clings to power, the greater the risk of destabilization in Syria and throughout the region.” Although Rice’s words were subtle in tone, the message she sent to Assad was clear – relinquish power or the terror attacks will continue. Instead of condemning the bombings, Rice actually hinted that more would take place until the NATO powers had achieved their political agenda of regime change.