– The Grand Old Party of Republicanism on President Obama’s Health Care Reform: “We Need To Start From Scratch.”

– The Patient: “I HAVE A SCRATCH.”

– The GOP Leading Insuring Doctor: “That’s All We’re Gonna Cover.”

$ $

NOT AMERICA’S DILEMMA – BUT AMERICA’S REALITY.

$ $

The range of questions on health care in GOP circles are:

Q.  IS HEALTH CARE REFORM -

a.   A BAD IDEA?

b.   A REALLY BAD IDEA?

c.   A TOTALLY DESPICABLE IDEA?

A.  Now please vote!      a.       b.      c.

$ $

The US spends about twice as much on health as other industrialized Nations – in absolutes and as percentage of GDP -  and see what you got – scratch coverage if it is not a pre existing condition!

It is funny how the Chinese cannot take responsibility when they do something right, and the Americans cannot take responsibility when they do something wrong.

Washington bailed out GM rather then making sure first they change products and Beijing stopped companies from buying into the GM misfits but find ways to explain this without harming the feelings of GM. Good riddance to the Hummer monster – specially to the yellow one that used to cruise the New York Mid-town East Side and driven by some chief from the Department of Sanitation.

CHINA INSISTS A FLAWED APPROACH HURT GM DEAL
By Patti Waldmeir in Shanghai 2010-02-26, The Financial Times.

The collapse of General Motors’ plan to sell Hummer to a Chinese buyer reflects flaws in the deal rather than any reluctance by Beijing to sanction cross-border transactions, say Chinese government officials.

GM announced late on Wednesday that it had given up on efforts to sell its troubled Hummer operations to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery, after nearly nine months of trying.

The Detroit carmaker said it would now wind down production of the heavy sports utility vehicle.

The collapse marks another difficult sales process for GM since it began to downsize its operations more than a year ago. The carmaker backed out of plans to sell its Opel business last year, while a deal to offload its Saturn brand fell apart.

But it this week succeeded in selling Saab, its Swedish marque, to Spyker, the Dutch boutique sports car maker.

Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery, which had never produced a passenger car, said the deal collapsed because it was “unable to obtain clearance [for] the transaction from the Chinese regulators within the proposed deal timeframe”.

The deal’s deadline had already been extended by a month while Tengzhong made a last-ditch effort to obtain Beijing’s blessing.

Analysts said yesterday that Beijing’s refusal to sanction the deal was scarcely surprising, given the central government’s recent strong emphasis on encouraging Chinese consumers to buy smaller, fuel-efficient cars.

To produce the hulking Hummer, with its image of wasteful excess, could hardly be less consistent with Beijing’s pro-green automotive policies, said Mike Dunne of Dunne & Co, an Asia-based automotive consultancy: “For them to approve the Hummer deal would be a big contradiction.”

A ministry of commerce spokesman said Tengzhong failed to provide a sound purchase plan. He reiterated China’s policy of encouraging development of a renewable, green and environmentally friendly economy.

The ministry has previously insisted it never received an application by Sichuan Tengzhong – but the company repeatedly denied it.

Yale Zhang, of CSM Automotive in Shanghai, said the deal violated not only Beijing’s environmental goals but also Chinese insistence on consolidation in the auto industry, which has about 50-100 carmakers.

“This was just the wrong group making the wrong purchase in the wrong way,” said an industry insider, noting Tengzhong did not obtain provisional clearance before announcing the deal.

Beijing is thought willing to sanction the much bigger $1bn acquisition of Volvo by Geely, the big private Chinese automaker. That deal is expected to be finalised by March’s end.

Last year BAIC, the Beijing automaker, acquired some assets of Saab from GM, with central government approval.

—————

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL

Goodbye, Hummer
Published: February 25, 2010

The world might be saved: It looks as if the Hummer is destined for the junkyard. The plan by General Motors to sell the muscular brand to a Chinese company went up in a puff of exhaust smoke on Wednesday after government officials in China said that they had never received the necessary application for approval and thus couldn’t grant it.

We suspect the deal collapsed because the Chinese Communist Party — which rarely shows much shame — is worried about China’s image as the most polluting nation on the planet. If true, that is good news.

There may be other good news. While some policy analysts have called — sensibly, in our opinion — for steeper gasoline taxes to encourage American drivers to embrace fuel efficiency, some economists have been skeptical. They acknowledge that drivers might decide to drive less and take public transportation more. But they warn that most could not afford to quickly dump their gas guzzlers for more fuel-efficient cars.

Yet given time, it seems, people change their ways. Americans drove 3.4 percent fewer miles in 2008 — when gas prices shot up to a peak of $4 a gallon nationally — than in 2007. And many who had bought the Hummer when a gallon of gas cost $2 decided that they couldn’t afford to tool around town in a small tank that would run, on average, around 10 miles on a gallon.

By last year, even as gas prices drifted downward, only about 9,000 Hummers were sold in the United States. That was a steep drop from 71,000 in 2006. In the spring of 2008, G.M. announced that it could not keep the sinking brand. The company is weighing two long-shot bids, but it is more than likely to wind down the brand.

Gasoline is back around $2.50 a gallon, and Americans are falling back on some of their old bad habits. Still, the Hummer’s tale is a vivid example of the power of gas prices to change Americans’ ways. It also suggests that, given the proper incentives and disincentives, all the world’s nations can embrace a greener future.

Operation New Dawn
By Cindy Sheehan, Reader Supported News
20 February 2010

“The very word ‘war’, therefore, has become misleading. It would probably be accurate to say that by becoming continuous war has ceased to exist…. War is Peace.”
George Orwell, 1984
f I forget everything else in my life, I will never forget the night I walked in my front door with my dogs, Buster and Chewy, and saw the three military officers standing in my living room.

I knew the moment I saw them that Casey was dead. It doesn’t take a genius to put that equation together. On one side of the equal sign is your recently deployed soldier-son, and on the other side are three Army officers standing in your house looking like they would rather be just about anywhere else.

I didn’t go to sleep that night, or indeed, for a few nights. I didn’t want to go to sleep and have to wake up after brief oblivion to the realization that my oldest son was dead: Killed in a war that, like most wars, never should have been fought in the first place. Casey’s number came up and he became just one more in a long line of humans killed for profit. Casey certainly wasn’t the first, and he certainly won’t be the last, but my first-born preceded his parents and three of his grandparents in death.

It seemed like within minutes of the notification at 9pm on 04 April 2004 our house was filled with friends, and the tears, screams, questions and memories flowed freely. Around 6am, I went outside to sit on the porch on my porch swing. Through my tears, shock and grief, I could see my neighborhood begin to awaken. People coming outside to pick up their papers or head for work. I wanted to scream at them: “Don’t you know my son is dead? How can you pretend like the world is normal?” The world has never been “normal,” but I have lived in an even more surreal version since Casey was killed.

Today, I found out that the “operation” that killed my son is over. “Operation Iraqi Freedom” got its name after the “great” Powers That Be figured out that “Operation Iraqi Liberation” stood for “OIL.” Now, Obama’s SecDef, Robert Gates, has changed that benign name to an even more New-Agey, Sweeter-Than-Honey name: “Operation New Dawn.” Doesn’t that sound nice? Who doesn’t like New Dawns? Except, perhaps, the people of Falluja who were brutalized in a Marine siege back in 2004 that was inappropriately entitled Operation New Dawn.

When Obama first took over the trappings of Empire, he changed the name of the “Global War on Terror” the GWOT to: OCO, or Overseas Contingency Operation – doesn’t that sound benevolent, too? Like the US Empire is involved in Overseas Aid. You have a need for “Aid?” We have a “contingency” for you!

Illegal invasions and occupations are now called: “Interventions,” as if the US and its allies are sweeping in and saving a country or society from a drug or alcohol problem, when clearly it is The Empire that is suffering from an addiction to mass murder and pillage.

It doesn’t matter what the US decides to call its “Operations.” Part of us will reject the propaganda, and part of us will embrace it, wanting very desperately to believe that our country is not a rogue state and/or that Obama is not as bad, or worse, than Bush.

Innocent people still die and our soldiers are still victims, whether they come home dead or alive, whatever the war criminals in DC decide to label their crimes as.

It doesn’t matter for me either. One day, whether voluntarily, or by force, these “Operations,” “Contingencies,” “Interventions,” or “Crimes against humanity” will eventually end, but my oldest son will be always be dead. There’s absolutely no way in Hell for The Empire to euphemize that reality to make it any less painful, or easier for me to bear.

Accountability for Casey’s death won’t make the pain go away either, but it may prevent other mothers and families from having to suffer from our nation’s continuous wars.

——————

Iraq war to get new name after US troops pull out.

{But then- really – “You cannot end a war simply by changing its name.”}

by Bloomberg on Friday, 19 February 2010 – picked up on ArabianBusiness.com
 http://www.arabianbusiness.com/581912-ir…

TROOPS WITHDRAWAL: The last of US combat troops will withdraw in August.(Getty Images)
The war in Iraq will get a new name after the last of US combat troops withdraw in August, the Pentagon said, prompting criticism of “public relations tactics.”

Defense Secretary Robert Gates approved changing the name of the campaign to Operation New Dawn from Operation Iraqi Freedom as of Sept. 1, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said in an e-mail. ABC News reported the change earlier on Friday.

The move reflects the drawdown of forces that General Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is preparing after the Persian Gulf nation’s March 7 general election, a shift to be completed in August.

That will leave about 50,000 U.S. troops in brigades that will advise and assist Iraqi Security Forces until the last American soldiers leave at the end of 2011.

“Aligning the name change with the change of mission sends a strong signal that Operation Iraqi Freedom has ended and our forces are operating under a new mission,” Gates wrote in a Feb. 17 memo to General David Petraeus, the top commander for the region.

Military Families United, a Washington-based advocacy group that has opposed Obama administration policies such as moving prisoners from the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the U.S., rapped the name change as empty “public relations tactics.”

“You cannot end a war simply by changing its name,” said Brian Wise, the group’s executive director, in an e-mailed statement. “Despite the administration’s efforts to spin realities on the ground, their efforts do not change the situation at hand in Iraq.”

The case of accession of Macedonia is no laughing matter. It is still unknown how Greece’s current financial and economic troubles will have an impact on the Macedonian name dispute. Athens is currently under tremendous pressure from big eurozone countries such as Germany and France to cut back spending and provide accurate data on its deficit, while facing unprecedented scrutiny by the European Commission.

Some diplomats suggest that this offers a window of opportunity for clearing the name dispute and should be seized, while others say that because of the painful economic measures, Athens will be even less inclined to compromise on the name issue, a matter of national pride.

But neither are some gestures from the government in Skopje of any help, such as naming the airport and a major highway after Alexander the Great, a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon – moves which prompted fierce criticism in Greece.

Brussels officials familiar with the matter say that if a solution is found, Macedonia’s membership could be coupled with Iceland’s, which has also applied to join the club. Their accession would happen after Croatia’s, which is the closest to EU membership at this stage.

“Once we open negotiations, people are in for a big surprise. Everybody thinks Iceland will have no problems in joining, but actually it is Macedonia who will be flying through the negotiating chapters. Apart from some classical problems with the judiciary and fight against corruption, Macedonia has harmonised its legislation and implemented a lot of EU requirements,” one EU source told this website.

As for Iceland, although it is part of the EU’s internal market, negotiations are likely to run into trouble over fisheries and other topics dear to the Nordic islanders. The current financial dispute with Great Britain and the Netherlands is also not looking good for the EU prospects of Reykjavik. And contrary to the situation with the Balkan country, some parts of the Icelandic political establishment are against EU membership.

For now, both Macedonian and Greek officials, despite the declared willingness to find a solution, have not yet inched closer to a result. The UN mediator on the issue, Matthew Nimetz, is due in Skopje next week. The UN is just the bigger international body to stir the EU soup.

OK, more important to us seems the Financial Times comment from Washington about “Baroso’s man goes to Washington.”

The comment is by Tony Barber who runs a Brussels blog and he addresses the EU appointment of Joao Vale de Almeida to be EU’s next Ambassador to the US.

The outgoing Ambassador is John Bruton who was a former Irish Prime Minister and well known to Congress and the White House when he got his appointment in 2004.

The incoming Ambassador is a Portuguese Eurocrat who worked for Mr. Baroso and is totally unknown to Washington. Indeed some in Washington have seen him as involved as a by-stander to the G8 and G20 meetings, but when faced with him, following the EU elected so called Permanent President and sort of Foreign Ministers, both of whom are totally unknown to Washington, all what they see as qualifications for Mr. Vale de Almeida is that for five years – 2004 – 2009 he was Chief of Staff for the EU Commission’s President Mr. Baroso – the non-permanent and non-rotating – third EU President – of that nebulous intractable – so called European Union – the symbol of its refusal to be united, even though he was the one that did in effect push for the Lisbon rules for creating that goal of a United Europe.

The laughs come up when the author of the note points out that the perception is reinforced by the fact that Baroso has engineered the Ambassadorial appointment for his man in advance of the newly being created EU foreign service under Dame Ashton – who will have her job as who chooses ambassadors.

OK, we hope the EU helps squeeze Greece into allowing its neighbors to chose their own names, and to squeeze Island of allowing its fish to be caught by Greek fishermen. The mess in Cyprus can then be left to the UN to handle that other tough issue and in the meantime – the EU of 27 will require from the world to be seen as an EU of 28 – with the EU itself being the added state that enlarges meeting tables with one more unproductive participant.

The sad thing is that the world needs an EU that amounts to the missing G3 with which China and the US can sit down at a small table before inviting over India, Brazil, South Africa, Turkey, Mexico, Japan, Australia, Russia . . . one or two more, and start looking at what is of highest importance for the future of the Planet – issues such as global warming and climate change.

Cold truths about the Northeast’s harsh winter

Friday, February 19, 2010

The correction – Yes – the Press Conference was at 7:30 am with the UNSG and four journalists present, but the two leaders – Gordon Brown and Meles Zenawi were present only via video-conference. They were at confortable hours back there in London and Addis Ababa.

===============

The most important issue in our opinion that the following shows that the UN is incapable to address, is the question if it will be unavoidable to bribe China into being more effective in its efforts to curb CO2 emissions in its development and manufacturing-for-export policies – and use for this the funds that the UN tries to raise for helping developing countries in joint projects with the old industrialized nation. We think that the UN Secretary-General owes the funding countries a clear answer on this and the UN needs an open PRESS CORPS that is capable of asking such questions. Obviously, Matthew Lee points out also other issues – some of which in our opinion are really non issues – but nevertheless they become issues if clear answers are not provided by the UN – such as the IPCC problems. Also, the snow-in-New York issue could have been handled better by turning it into science from the intended background of a joke. This is why we will post the following also in our “cartoons” categoty on our website.

——–

At UN, Climate Change Financing Discussed, IPCC Glacier and Pachauri Questions Not Taken, China Eligibility Debated.

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 12, 2010 — At an ill-attended press conference held at 7:30 am Friday in UN Headquarters in New York, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon introduced Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi and his UK counterpart Gordon Brown as chairs of an Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing.

In a tightly controlled media Q &A session that followed, Mr. Ban did not address the controversy swirling about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s scientific blunders and chairman Doctor Pachauri.

Rather, Mr. Ban took on a straw man question, about whether the snow in New York undermined climate science. He also said that he will ask the heads of state of Guyana and Norway to join.

Of the four journalists at the UN in New York who raised their hands to ask questions, three were called on by Ban’s spokesman Martin Nesirky. Before a softball question about the snow outside, one asked repeatedly if any of the climate change financing would be given to China. As Mr. Ban looked uncomfortable, both Prime Ministers denied it.

Despite hand raised from the beginning of the question and answer session to the end, Inner City Press was not allowed to ask a question. In fact, the question had back on February 3 been asked and dodged by Nesirky:

Inner City Press: There has been a lot of controversy around the finding of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) about the Himalayan glaciers, and they have essentially back-tracked and said that they apologized; it was unverified information. Mr. Pachauri has said he won’t apologize. But, I wonder what, given the importance of climate change and the IPCC to the Secretary-General’s agenda, what does he make of this controversy and how can the IPCC process be reformed to not create this kind of controversy on the issue?

Spokesperson: The Secretary-General is obviously aware of these reports and what’s been happening in the last few days and weeks. But, you know, ultimately it’s for the IPCC to address this. It’s for the IPCC to talk about this, and they have talked about this in some detail. They have said that they regret what happened, and reaffirming their strong commitment to a high level of performance in their reporting and so on. So, therefore, it’s not really for the Secretary-General to weigh in on this specific report. There are many reports, there are many other aspects to the work on climate change, which is absolutely vital, as you’ve mentioned; it’s one of his priorities. So, I think that the most important thing is to focus on the road to Mexico and how you can improve the prospects for that meeting and what needs to be done between now and then.

Inner City Press: [inaudible] because… in the last 24 hours… Mr. Pachauri….

Spokesperson: IPCC regrets, Matthew, IPCC regrets.

Question: So, I mean, Mr. Pachauri says he wasn’t responsible for it. So, I guess what I’m saying is, who is in charge of the agency on which Ban Ki-moon rests his, you know, the case has been made by that agency [inaudible].

UN’s Ban and Meles Zenawi, glaciers and Pachauri not shown

Spokesperson: No, no, Matthew, the Secretary-General does not rest his case purely on the IPCC. There is an enormous body of evidence and information out there from various different sources, not just from the IPCC, however important that may be. And an error in one report does not undermine the entire science that is clearly proven.

So who apologized — the IPCC’s website? To have nothing to say about the various scandals surrounding the IPCC and Pachauri seems strange. To not allow the question a week later is worse.

Update: in the hallway after the press conference, away from the screen of the Spokesperson, UN climate advisor Janos Pasztor at least took Inner City Press’ other question, on the way to Ban’s next appearance, signing compacts with some senior officials, on which we will later report — how this UN Panel would interact with the IMF’s idea of using SDRs. It will consult, Pasztor said. Possible duplication of effort?

Also after the press conference, a senior Chinese official told Inner City Press that the question about China taking climate change funding was “stupid” and “insulting.” He said, “We are entitled to it!”

UN’s Ban Has No Comment on Himalayan Glacier Gaffe, Doesn’t Rely on IPCC

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 3 — With various ice research related scandals opening up around UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s signature issue of climate change, Inner City Press on Wednesday asked his spokesman Martin Nesirky for Ban’s views on the misleading of the public about the melting of Himalayan glaciers.

While Nesirky dodged the question, Ban’s climate change advisor later in the day told Inner City Press that Ban may have something to say later on the topic. Meanwhile Doctor Pachauri, with no guidance from Ban, it attacking those who question him, refusing to answer questions or apologize. From the UN’s transcription of its February 3 noon briefing, video here:

Spokesperson Nesirky: Last question, Matthew.

Inner City Press: There has been a lot of controversy around the finding of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) about the Himalayan glaciers, and they have essentially back-tracked and said that they apologized; it was unverified information. Mr. Pachauri has said he won’t apologize. But, I wonder what, given the importance of climate change and the IPCC to the Secretary-General’s agenda, what does he make of this controversy and how can the IPCC process be reformed to not create this kind of controversy on the issue?

Spokesperson: The Secretary-General is obviously aware of these reports and what’s been happening in the last few days and weeks. But, you know, ultimately it’s for the IPCC to address this. It’s for the IPCC to talk about this, and they have talked about this in some detail. They have said that they regret what happened, and reaffirming their strong commitment to a high level of performance in their reporting and so on. So, therefore, it’s not really for the Secretary-General to weigh in on this specific report. There are many reports, there are many other aspects to the work on climate change, which is absolutely vital, as you’ve mentioned; it’s one of his priorities. So, I think that the most important thing is to focus on the road to Mexico and how you can improve the prospects for that meeting and what needs to be done between now and then.

Inner City Press: [inaudible] because… in the last 24 hours… Mr. Pachauri….

Spokesperson: IPCC regrets, Matthew, IPCC regrets.

Question: So, I mean, Mr. Pachauri says he wasn’t responsible for it. So, I guess what I’m saying is, who is in charge of the agency on which Ban Ki-moon rests his, you know, the case has been made by that agency

UN’s Ban and Pachauri, no one responsible for Glacier-Gate, novel

Spokesperson: No, no, Matthew, the Secretary-General does not rest his case purely on the IPCC. There is an enormous body of evidence and information out there from various different sources, not just from the IPCC, however important that may be. And an error in one report does not undermine the entire science that is clearly proven.

So who apologized — the IPCC’s website? To have nothing to say about the various scandals surrounding the IPCC and Pachauri seems strange. It’s why some say Ban is now shifted to rolling the dice on a trip to North Korea — our next story, forthcoming.

Footnote: The UN’s and Ban’s climate unit under Janos Pasztor, which was told there was no room for it in the UN’s Temporary North Lawn Conference Building where Ban has his office, is now looking at space in the Alcoa Building on 48th Street, Inner City Press is told.

For now, they are left behind in the nearly empty UN skyscaper where asbestos removal has already begun. Meanwhile, Pachauri has wished asbestos on his critics….

* * *

Mail received from a foreign country
Betreff: FW: Bill Gates & General Motors.

How funny but, yet unfortunately, true!

Please share this with your friends who love – but sometimes hate – their computer!

For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on.

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated:
“If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon..”

In  response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press release as follows:

If  GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics…..

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash………Twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the    windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case    you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive – but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single
‘This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation’ warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask ‘Are you sure?’ before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You’d have to press the  ‘Start’ button to turn the engine off.

PS – I ‘d like to add that when all else fails, you could call ‘customer service’ in some foreign country and be instructed in some foreign language how to fix your car yourself.

The capital region is not accustomed to this much snow. The average annual snowfall for Washington is 15 inches. But the 2009-10 winter has been far from average. A major storm just before Christmas dumped up to 20 inches in some areas, and the city has seen smaller snow accumulations already twice this week.

The record snowfall for D.C. was 28 inches in 1922.This weekend alone will surpass that amount.

The snow was expected to become particularly heavy after nightfall and continue through Saturday. The Washington DC district’s director of transportation, Gabe Klein, said the snow could pile up at a rate of four inches an hour during parts of the storm, with winds gusting up to 25 miles an hour.

For district officials, the latest blizzard seemed a bit old hat. “We’re pretty much going to handle it in the same way we handled the last storm,” said William Howland Jr., director of D.C.’s Department of Public Works. In the spirit of the season, city press advisories referred to the storm as the “super snow bowl.”  Others dubbed it – “Snowmageddon.” We call it a potential tie-breaker in the Congressional Global Warming Wars. They will call it Washington Freezing and find in it an excuse for doing nothing on the Global Issue.

The storm also got the attention of the White House, whose current occupant, Barack Obama, famously dissed his adopted city’s response to a minor snowfall shortly after taking office last year. This time around, his tune had changed. As White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters, “Even a transplanted Hawaiian to Chicago has sufficient respect for a forecast of nearly two feet of snow.”

———-

Even as city officials were urging residents to stay off the streets, Washingtonians were making plans for mass revelry in the form of giant snowball fights. (A group snow battle during the December storm was marred when a police officer pulled out a gun after snowballs hit his Hummer.)

On Friday, a Facebook group promoted the “official DuPont Circle Snowball Fight” for Saturday afternoon and boasted that its membership had soared from 30 people on Thursday to more than 2,000 a day later.

Local bars and restaurants were offering Snow Day specials, with at least one establishment, Urbana, promoting a “baby, it’s cold outside beach party” theme.

Washington, Maryland and Virginia all declared snow emergencies Friday morning, and hundreds of flights were canceled at the region’s three major airports.  The lobbyists will be stuck in town this weekend. With snow soon to be sticking to the runways, a Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority spokesman said she expected the final flights to leave the area by 6 p.m., with the airports likely to be shuttered all day Saturday.

——————–

By Nafeesa Syeed
AP
WASHINGTON (Feb. 6) — A blizzard battered the Mid-Atlantic region Saturday, with emergency crews struggling to keep pace with the heavy, wet snow that has piled up on roadways, toppled trees and left thousands without electricity.

The National Weather Service called the storm “extremely dangerous.”

Officials urged people to huddle at home and out of the way of emergency crews. Forecasters said the storm could be the biggest for the nation’s capital in modern history.

A record 2½ feet or more was predicted for Washington. As of early Saturday, 10 inches of snow was reported at the White House, while parts of Maryland and West Virginia were buried under more than 20 inches. Forecasters expected snowfall rates to increase, up to 2 inches per hour through Saturday morning.

Blizzard warnings were issued for the District of Columbia, Baltimore, parts of New Jersey and Delaware, and some areas west of the Chesapeake Bay.

“Things are fairly manageable, but trees are starting to come down,” said D.C. fire department spokesman Pete Piringer, whose agency responded to some of the falling trees. No injuries were reported.

President Barack Obama called the storm “Snowmageddon.”

Airlines canceled flights, churches called off weekend services and people wondered if they would be stuck at home for several days in a region ill-equipped to deal with so much snow.

“D.C. traditionally panics when it comes to snow. This time, it may be more justifiable than most times,” said Becky Shipp, who was power-walking in Arlington, Va., Friday. “I am trying to get a walk in before I am stuck with just the exercise machine in my condo.”

The region’s second snowstorm in less than two months brought heavy, wet snow and strong winds that forecasters warned could gust near 60 mph in some areas along the coast.

Hundreds of thousands of customers across the region had lost electricity and more outages were expected to be reported because of all the downed power lines. A hospital fire in D.C. sent about three dozen patients scurrying from their rooms to safety in a basement. The blaze started when a snow plow truck caught fire near the building.

Authorities blamed the storm for hundreds of accidents, including a deadly tractor-trailer wreck that killed a father and son who had stopped to help someone in Virginia. Some area hospitals asked people with four-wheel-drive vehicles to volunteer to pick up doctors and nurses to take them to work.

The country band Rascal Flatts postponed a concert Saturday in Ohio, but the Atlanta Thrashers-Washington Capitals NHL game went on as planned.

In Dover, Del., Shanita Foster lugged three gallons of water out of a Dollar General store.
“That’s all we need right now. We’ve got everything else,” said Foster, adding that she was ready with candles in case the power went out.

Shoppers jammed aisles and emptied stores of milk, bread, shovels, driveway salt and other supplies. Many scrambling for food and supplies were too late.
“Our shelves are bare,” said Food Lion front-end manager Darlene Baboo in Dover. “This is just unreal.”

Metro, the transit system the Washington area is heavily dependent upon, closed all but the underground rail service and suspended bus service.

Maryland’s public transportation also shut down Saturday, including Baltimore’s Metro. Maryland Transit Administration spokeswoman Jawauna Greene said the underground portion of the Metro could reopen later Saturday but it depended on the weather conditions.
“We have trees on the overhead wires, trees on train tracks. We can’t get anything out,” she said.

Amtrak also canceled several of its Northeast Corridor trains Saturday, and New Jersey’s transit authority expected to suspend bus service. As much as a foot of snow was reported in parts of that state.

Across the region, transportation officials deployed thousands of trucks and crews and had hundreds of thousands of tons of salt at the ready. Several states exhausted or expected to exhaust their snow removal budgets.

Maryland budgeted about $60 million, and had already spent about $50 million, Gov. Martin O’Malley said. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who has been in office less than a month, declared his second snow emergency, authorizing state agencies to assist local governments. As of early Saturday, some parts of Virginia had already seen more than 18 inches of snow.

The snow comes less than two months after a Dec. 19 storm dumped more than 16 inches on Washington. Snowfalls of this magnitude – let alone two in one season – are rare in the area. According to the National Weather Service, Washington has gotten more than a foot of snow only 13 times since 1870.

The heaviest on record was 28 inches in January 1922. The biggest snowfall for the Washington-Baltimore area is believed to have been in 1772, before official records were kept, when as much as 3 feet fell, which George Washington and Thomas Jefferson penned in their diaries.

In Washington, tourists made the best of it Friday, spending their days in museums or venturing out to see the monuments before the snow got too heavy.

A group of 13 high school students from Cincinnati was stranded in D.C. when a student government conference they planned to attend was canceled – after they had already arrived. So they went sightseeing.

At the Smithsonian’s natural history museum, Caitlin Lavon, 18, and Hannah Koch, 17, took pictures of each other with the jaws of a great white shark in the Ocean Hall.
“Our parents are all freaking out, sending texts to be careful,” Koch said. “Being from Ohio, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much snow at once.”

Associated Press writers Brett Zongker and Sarah Karush in Washington, Kathleen Miller in Falls Church, Va., David Dishneau in Chantilly, Va., Ben Nuckols in Hanover, Md., Randall Chase in Dover, Del., and Steve Szkotak in Richmond, Va., contributed to this report.

———————

Here in New York, I just came home from jogging on the street – there were more joggers out on a Saturday morning then I ever saw. The streets  are clear – the only white is that of salt some eager store owners or building – Supers sprinkled believing there will be snow. Indeed in between parked cars, in some streets, there is a little bit of white – so there was a dusting sometime earlier today. Will New York be spared this time? Was it all destined for Washington or we are still on line to get it later?

From:  info at cultureChange.org

Climate Science: Shooting the Messenger
By Alex Smith, Radio Ecoshock

Regarding the recent attacks on top climate scientists, Radio Ecoshock
takes the case of Richard B. Alley. He is the Evan Pugh Professor of
Geosciences, at Penn State University. Alley is a Fellow of the American
Geophysical Union (AGU), and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
His popular book about ice cores is called “The Two Mile Time Machine.”

Alley was expected to give one of the best speeches of the December 2009
annual meeting of the AGU in San Francisco, and he did not disappoint. Here
is a short digest of that hour-long Bjerknes Lecture to the AGU in San
Francisco in December.

Professor Alley begins with the attack:

“I said these were interesting times. This is a copy of an email that was
sent to my administration [at Penn State] by an alum [alumni, former grad
of Penn State], and said alum copied me on this, so I believe I am fair.
The alum asks for certain personnel changes to be made, and I have just put
in the ones that relate to me.

“So for what it’s worth, ‘Dr. Alley’s work on CO2 levels and ice cores’ -
now I don’t actually do that but I talk about it – OK, ‘Dr. Alley’s work on
CO2 levels and ice cores has confirmed that CO2 lags Earth’s temperature.
This one scientific fact alone proves that CO2 is not the cause of the
recent warming.’

“I continue to mislead the scientific community. There should be prompt
response (getting rid of me), I have ‘crimes against the scientific
community, Penn State, the citizens of this great country and the citizens
of the world’ that ‘must be dealt with severely’ because of my ’shameful’
activities.”

[laughter from the audience][applause]
_ _

To read the complete report and get audio links go to
 http://culturechange.org/go.html?599

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Harold Somer <harold.somer@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jan 31, 2010 at 9:19 PM
Subject: he Recent Supreme Court Decision- Speech is Money / Money is Speech

Dear All-of-You:

A consensus among the Democrats and Republicans in the Congress have agreed on the need to edit and modify the Preamble to The Constitution, to wit:

WE THE CORPORATIONS OF AMERICA, IN ORDER TO FORM A MORE PERFECT MARKET PLACE, ENHANCE FREE ENTERPRISE, PROMOTE PROSPERITY AND TRANQUILITY

AMONG THE PEOPLE, TO PROMOTE THE GENERAL WELFARE AND TO SECURE THE BLESSINGS OF THE FREE MARKET FOR OURSELVES  AND OUR POSTERITY, DO ORDAIN AND ESTABLISH  THIS CONSTITUTION FOR  THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAN. – SELAH

In the words of the outstanding American Rush Limbaugh, this declaration affirms the truth and wisdom of- WHAT’S GOOD FOR WALL STREET IS  GOOD FOR AMERICA.  SELAH

Affirmed this day by the majority of  the Supreme Court.

Enjoy!

Harold Somer

Hard Copies to be mailed:

Chief Justice John G. Roberts

Associate Justices:

Samuel A. Alito

Anthony M. Kennedy

Antonin G. Scalia

Clarence Thomas*

Stephen G. Breyer

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Sonia Sotomayor

John Paul Stevens

* Mr. Thomas didn’t have the credentials to be a Traffic Court  Judge.

——————————————

Politico, Jan 22, 2010

The Supreme Court of The United States just decided that a corporation has the same rights as a human being which has great legal implications and does not restrict large corporate money from buying more political influence.  This allowance of corporations to operate as an entity can allow for political speech suppression, the right to the freedom of speech on the internet, websites, books, television and any media.

Basically this means the government has the right to censor free speech and free thoughts of Americans and can use criminal law to enforce its control over the freedoms of Americans.  This goes against the Constitution and basically over rides the constitutional rights that Americans had in the past and opens the door for corruption and censorship in the media.  There are currently 9 Judges on the Supreme Court of the US and this is how they voted.

The  Justices that voted against this decision are Discenters {dissenters?}:

Justice John Paul Stevens

Justice  Sonia Sotomayor

Justice  Steven Breyer

Justice Ruth Ginsburg

The Justices that voted for Allowing More Corporate Interests are:

Justice Clarence Thomas

Justice Antonin Scalia

Justice Samuel Alito Jr.  are all Bush appointees and conservatives ruling from the bench.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy

Justice John G. Roberts of course broke the tie vote and threw his support to the Bush Judges making him an activist judge. In fact Roberts just voted for what Americans hate the most which is lobbyists and special interest corporate money influencing the people’s business. What right does the Court have to legislate and who gave these judges that right?

The Republicans charged that Sonia Sotomayor would rule from the bench and these judges are deciding to change the Constitution which is an appalling miscarriage of justice.

It was a slim vote of 5 in favor and 4 against and it falls on the conservative appointed judges that work to increase campaign spending by corporations.  In their infinite wisdom the courts also allowed unions to contribute to special favors from politicians in their attempt to appease the democrats which tend to gain more contributions by unions.  This allowance is supposed to make this medicine easier to swallow but corporate interests have deeper pockets.

When you consider the bank lobbyists from Wall Street, the insurance lobbyists, the Health care lobbyists, the oil corporation lobbyists and all the other lobbyists you can see where the Obama legislation will have no effect on his term.  A conservative Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky praised the court for restoring the first Amendment rights of corporations and unions.

The Supreme Court of the United States just opened more doors to lobbyists and special interest groups to fund their own agenda rather than the business of the people.  This reverses a 63 year old law that limits campaign free for all spending and increases lobbyists interests in government.

This court has decided to wipe away over 1oo years of US history and is devoted to increase corruption of the democracy once held high in the USA, making it no better than the dictatorship government of Haiti.

The Supreme Court has decided in its own lack of justice that the First Amendment rights extend not only to humans as was the case in the Constitution but to a corporation.  This has far fetched legal implications than you think in regards to lawsuits against a corporation which is now considered an “individual” or human person.

In a 5 to 4 decision the slim majority of one vote was cast to allow corporations to assume a human identity as an individual and the Supreme Court said that corporations “cannot be limited in their campaign contributions” to politicians.   Remember the phrase “Justice is Blind”?

This decision will allow more corporate money to influence public decisions that have a great bearing on Americans in a negative way.   This court’s decision comes at a very important time with mid-term elections this year the rich corporations will sway who gets in to the state elections and who gets to govern.  Big business will decide that -not the voter.  This law is incorrect in its assumption that one individual American is identical to one corporation and this just does not favor the individual who has less influence that a large, rich corporation on a politician.  The corporation obviously has more financial backing, more contributions means more special interests for that corporation and this law is a blatant and corrupt law and changes the Constitution as you knew it.

Really it is of no surprise that this court is a conservative court with its own special interests as you saw during the gore Bush election results which was a total sham of justice.

The dominance of corporate money in politics will loom large in the coming elections and during the health care reform bill the health care industry spent 1 million dollars per day to force lawmakers to stop regulating their industry. The business interests and profits of these large corporations will become more involved in campaign donations in the future.

Politicians are only interested in one thing and that is to remain in power and grab as much campaign dollars as they can to benefit their contributors not the people that elected them.  The bottom line is they are buying your votes to keep their corporations profitable by influencing politicians in Congress.

It is the Republican and Democrat politicians  that are now going to reap the benefits of this new law which allows them to accept any amount of money they wish and your taxpayers dollars are going to the benefit of corporations not the people of the United States.

Big business will get more earmarks, more special laws to protect them and more subsidies for their industry and the taxpayer just became less of a priority.  Big business is now in control of the government with sleazy back room deals which will become the norm as you saw during health care reform there will be 10 more lobbyists to each politician.

What this means is :

Fewer laws to protect consumers against insurance rates rising or rate hikes in credit card interest .

Fewer regulations on corporations that pollute your air, water and the impact of industry vs. global warming.

For instance if the big oil company’s want fewer restrictions on their impact of oil they simply will buy favor with the government by influencing politicians.  How lovely is that?

This new law also overrules 2 previous precedents which was a 2003 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 that restricted the amount of money spent by corporations.  The law also isolates the US as one of the worst political corrupt countries in the world where the Wall Street Banks will and do now do as they please as the financial industry stands to fall again in the future.  There is no stopping corporate interests now in government and your rights were just trampled on by allowing large corporate interest have a greater say than you.

To his credit Justice John Paul Stevens gave a 90 page response to the wrong that has been done in this decision but to no avail. Stevens said the majority that voted in favor of a corrupt political campaign system have made a grave error in judgment in treating corporations as “an individual” or a human being.

The Supreme Court also decided it was fine for Congress to:

Require corporations to disclose their sleazy purchases of politicians

Run disclaimers in their ads for political candidates.

Of course Justice Clarence Thomas voted against the disclaimers and this in effect “keeps hidden” what corporations spend and to whom the money went to.  Justice Clarence Thomas wishes to run the country like Haiti dictators who have taken in 2.7 billion dollars in aid and the money disappeared into thin air.

TAGS: Supreme Court Opens Doors to lobbyists, First amendment rights of corporations, corporate interests in us politics, US Political Limits on Campaign contributions, corporate interests, corporations given same rights as an individual, freedom of speech limited, censorship of the media, Rights Taken away from Americans, Corruption in US politics, Supreme court opens doors to more corruption.
 http://politicolnews.com/supreme-court-m…

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_fi…
 UPDATED –

 ejdionne at washpost.com

News Alert: Bin Laden blasts U.S. for climate change
06:49 AM EST Friday, January 29, 2010
——————–

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has called in a new audiotape for the world to boycott American goods and the U.S. dollar, blaming the United States and other industrialized countries for global warming. In the tape, aired in part on Al-Jazeera television Friday, bin Laden warns of the dangers of climate change and says that the way to stop it is to bring “the wheels of the American economy” to a halt

This information we picked up on a page of The Washington Post that includes a large advertisement from CHEVRON Oil Company:

“HUMAN ENERGY” “Every day Chevron invests $59 million in People. In ideas. In progress – Learn more”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/29/AR2010012901463.html?hpid=topnews

Bin Laden blasts US for climate change.

Includes also a photo from the FILE – “This is an undated photo of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. Bin
Laden issued a new audio message claiming responsibility for the Christmas day bombing attempt in Detroit and vowed further attacks. (Anonymous – AP)

The Associated Press
Friday, January 29, 2010; 6:52 AM
CAIRO — Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has called in a new audiotape for the world to boycott American goods and the U.S. dollar, blaming the United States and other industrialized countries for global warming.

In the tape, aired in part on Al-Jazeera television Friday, bin Laden
warns of the dangers of climate change and says that the way to stop
it is to bring “the wheels of the American economy” to a halt.

He says the world should “stop consuming American products” and
“refrain from using the dollar,” according to a transcript on
Al-Jazeera’s Web site.

The new message, whose authenticity could not immediately be
confirmed, comes after a bin Laden tape released last week in which he
endorsed a failed attempt to blow up an American airliner on Christmas
Day.

—————-

UNFCCC should take notice of this when next time Saudi Arabia will claim to be paid US Dollars for the losses that it will incur when the world will finally decide to use less oil – their hidden treasure under the desert sand. Whatever we think of Bin Laden – we know that it is the US dollars paid for oil that fuelled both – the monarchy of The House of Saud and the Bin Laden family complaints that these dollars corrupted the purity of the faith as they see it. Now – that is why we post the piece also on our “cartoons” column – not really because of our disbelief in the Chevron statement or the actual content of what is attributed to Osama.

We are afraid that some narrow minded people might actually say that because Osama says that the US is to be blamed for Global Warming – it is obvious that Global Warming is a non-issue – and US CATO will thus bless on Bin Laden – so The Heartland Institute can put him up im its Gallery of Fame. Crazy – I told you so.

With all our good intentions in this area, we wonder if it was a helpful bit of information that the UN of the “Seal-the Deal” experience helped now bring to the table at a time the UNFCCC tries to gather the shards from its previous efforts.

Sorry, we still think that progress will come only under the aegis of a US-China G2 symbiotic move that will eventually be joined by India, Brazil, Africa, and eventually the EU, after this body decides to reorganize in a united entity.

How can it be that someone hopes a US Congress will cough up a bill supportive of this sort of legislation after reading the posting we bring forth herewith? Saying you have money in your pocket but want the government to help you make more?

All  of this for 450ppm? This after what scientists said should be 350ppm?

——–

Climate Change: Heavyweight Investors Urge Action.

by IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis – Global Desk, January 18, 2010.

As the UN climate change secretariat prepares for the first global round of post-Copenhagen meetings at its headquarters in June in Bonn, an international coalition of investor groups is calling for concluding a legally-binding agreement this year.

The group wants such a treaty to comprise comprehensive long-term measures for mitigation, forest protection, adaptation, finance, and technology transfer, including a global emission reduction target of 50-85 percent by 2050, consistent with estimates from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The coalition — consisting of U.S., European and Australian investor groups and managing $13 trillion in assets — argues that there are competitive advantages for countries with comprehensive climate and energy policies.

“But we cannot wait for a global treaty,” says the group. The U.S. Congress and other global decision-makers should “take rapid action” on carbon emission limits, energy efficiency, renewable energy, financing mechanisms and other policies that will accelerate clean energy investment and job creation.

“Germany’s comprehensive policies, for example, have sparked significant private investment in industries focused on addressing climate change, leading to eight times more renewable energy jobs per capita than the United States,” the investors say in a statement released January 14 in New York.

The climate investor meeting was hosted and organised by Ceres, the United Nations Foundation and the United Nations Office for Partnerships. Ceres is a leading coalition of investors, environmental groups and other pubic interest organizations working with companies to address climate change and other sustainability challenges

“As powerful as these investors are, they can’t underwrite a clean energy transformation at the critical scale needed without clear rules only government can provide,” said Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres and director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk.

“Government policy can make clean energy cost-competitive by leveling the playing field with fossil fuels. Only government policy provides the long-term certainty that can turbo-charge private investment in clean energy, address the climate change threat and protect our planet.”

“Nations that address the energy challenge most effectively will quickly realize huge global economic opportunities. The race is on and there’s a need for speed,” said Pennsylvania State Treasurer Rob McCord, who joined Lubber and other leading investors in announcing the investor statement at the UN.

“Many of the most immediate impacts from global warming are affecting the poorest countries, which are least responsible for the problem and least prepared to adapt,” said Timothy E. Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation.

“To keep the rise in global temperatures to acceptable levels, the world will require a huge increase in capital investment for low-carbon infrastructure in developing countries (where most of the global energy growth will occur in the next 50 years). Most of this investment will have to come from the private sector — financial leaders like those participating in . . . (January 14) summit.”

“Some 85 percent of the financial resources needed to cope with climate challenges must come from private sources. In effect, the battle over climate change will be won — or lost — in the hands of private investors,” said Bjarne Graven Larsen, CIO of ATP, Denmark’s largest institutional investor. “In order to play this role effectively, strong, stable and credible policy frameworks are crucial. We are waiting for policymakers to deliver.”

“Given that Copenhagen was a missed opportunity to create one fully functional international carbon market, it is more important than ever that individual governments implement regional and domestic policy change to stimulate the creation of a low carbon economy,” said Peter Dunsombe, chairman of the IIGCC (Investor Group on Climate Change), a network of European investors.

“Sustaining the momentum on combating climate change and delivering a legally-binding treaty in 2010 represent two of the big challenges of the year in terms of achieving sustainable growth and poverty reduction,” said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director.

“This statement underlines that investors, representing trillions of dollars of assets, remain firmly focused and resolved on realizing a low-carbon, resource-efficient green economy. Governments should swiftly act on the pledges and promises made at the meetings in Copenhagen in respect to emissions reductions and finance.”

The coalition of investors considers following measures critical:
- Short- and long-term emission reduction targets
- Policies that put an effective price on carbon such that businesses and investors reassess investment value and redirect their investments
- Energy and transportation policies to vastly accelerate deployment of energy efficiency, renewable energy, green buildings, clean vehicles and fuels, and low-carbon transportation infrastructure
- Financing mechanisms that can mobilize private-sector investment on a large scale, particularly in developing countries
- Measures and financing to support adaptation in developing and developed countries
- Policies requiring corporate disclosure to investors of material climate-related risks and programs to manage those risks.

Without government actions, private-sector investment will not reach the scale required to address climate change effectively. While leading studies indicate that the costs of action to reduce GHG emissions are both affordable and significantly lower than the costs of inaction, developing a global low-carbon economy will nonetheless require substantially increased levels of investment from the private sector.

For example, the UNFCCC Secretariat estimates that more than $200 billion in total additional investment capital for mitigation is required each year by 2030 just to return GHGs to their current levels by then.

“So this is certainly an achievable level of investment — and one that would yield returns in terms of energy savings, energy security, reduced capital expenditures for pollution control, and avoided climate damages,” the coalition of investors says. (IDN-InDepthNews/18.01.2010)

INTERNATIONAL, THE ONION
Dubai Debt Crisis Halts Building Of World’s Largest Indoor Mountain Range.
JANUARY 14, 2010 | ISSUE 46•02
 http://www.theonion.com/content/news/dub…

DUBAI—Representatives from the emirate of Dubai announced with disappointment this week that its recent debt crisis has forced developers to halt construction on the city’s long-planned 22-mile-long indoor mountain range. (Planners continue to take future reservations for the mountains’ 9 and 10-star hotels.)

The culmination of a decade’s worth of ambitious and expensive building projects, Dubai’s estimated $100 billion debt officially brought work on the artificial mountain range to a stop on Tuesday.

“This is a very sad day for the emirate of Dubai,” Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed al-Maktoum told reporters at a press conference held inside the gold-plated anti-gravity chamber in his palace. “Although I believe it is the basic right of all who visit us to be able to scale to the top of a 15,000-foot-tall manmade snowcap, these tough economic times have made it an impossibility. Never before has our proud municipality faced such a grave crisis.”

Added Sheikh Hamdan, “The time, I’m afraid, has finally come for us to tighten our jewel-studded belts.”

With only seven of the planned 19 peaks completed and the artificial glaciers only partially frozen, the real estate firm Nakheel now says the landmark Alps Dubai development will miss its planned April 2011 opening date, and with it, the controlled volcanic eruption that would have commemorated the event.

“Everything had been progressing right on schedule,” said project manager Zayed Kemaar. “The plate tectonics were almost in place, we were getting good vulcanism, and we had helicopter-loads of marble and schist arriving every day from Switzerland. We even had herds of pure-white albino bighorn rams standing on five of the peaks. Then, of course, the bottom fell out, and now we barely have the money to keep the air conditioning on.”

Added Kemaar, “It just goes to show you that, when the economy is down, vital infrastructure projects like this are always the first to suffer.”

A number of Dubai officials have even speculated that the cornerstone Jabal Khalifa mountain, which, at 27,100 feet—not counting the 300-foot-tall Lebanese-cedar log flume atop the casino at the summit—would have been the sixth-highest peak in the world, may have to be canceled entirely.

“At this rate, we may be forced to dip into the vast diamond mines we installed in the center of the city last February,” Kemaar said.

Across the city there are signs of how deeply the overall economic climate of Dubai has been affected. Thousands of VIP tables sit empty, Lamborghinis clog dealership lots, and, with many unable to afford the usual imported pet foods, the streets are filled with starving stray snow leopards and feral peacocks. Empty glass tubes, once intended to contain seawater in which the city’s fleet of nuclear commuter submarines would travel, hang forlornly 30 stories overhead.

As the emirate reels from the news of the mountain range’s suspension, developers and government officials alike remain stymied on the best course of action for resolving the debt crisis and resuming work.

“Maybe this cold hard dose of reality is what Dubai needed,” said Sheikh Hamdan, adding that he remained “hopeful” his mountain range would one day be completed. “Maybe it’s time for us to pull ourselves up by the straps of our handmade custom-fitted patent-leather Italian boots and put our slaves back to work. Only through ingenuity, perseverance, and forced labor can Dubai get back to being Dubai again.”

“And mark my words,” he added, “We will still put a man on the artificial moon we’re building by 2025.”

Published: Wednesday January 13, 2010, The Star online.

Sarawak govt says coal is ‘renewable’ energy.
By STEPHEN THEN

 stephenthen at thestar.com.my

MIRI: The Borneo Resources Institute has strongly critised the move by the Sarawak government to classify the exploitation and mining of 1.156 billion tonnes of coal reserves as part of its “renewable energy” projects.

The institute, a Sarawak-based environmental watchdog group with global links, wants the ministries involved in environmental management at state and national levels to explain to the Malaysian public how the mining of coal could be categorised as “renewable.”

Institute executive director Mark Bujang said the state government had already included the mining of coal as part of the multibillion-ringgit projects to be carried out under the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) initiatives.

“We object to the move to categorise such an environmentally-hostile project as a renewable energy project because it is very misleading. Coal is a mineral that is exhaustible. It cannot be regenerated.

“The mining of coal is one of the most environmentally-damaging and polluting projects on Earth. The burning of coal in power-generating plants produces huge volume of green-house gas and have caused tremendous climatic changes all over the world.

“The extraction of coal from the ground and from underground mines have caused irrepairable environmental damages. These woes have been seen all over the world, especially in coal-producing countries.

“How is it possible then for Sarawak to classify coal-mining and the use of coal for power-generation as one of the projects approved under the renewable energy corridor?” he told The Star on Wednesday.

On Monday, Sarawak secured a US$11bil (RM38.5bil) investment from China to carry out three hydro-dam construction projects and other energy-intensive projects in the SCORE region spanning a 340km belt between Mukah district in central Sarawak and Similajau district in Bintulu Division in northern Sarawak.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak and Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud witnessed the inking of the deal between 1Malaysia Development Bhd and China State Grid Corporation in Kuala Lumpur.

Taib, upon his return to Sarawak, elaborated that the China consortium will handle the building of three hydro-electric dams and also look into the possibility of mining 400 million tonnes of coal deposits in Merit Pila in Kapit Division in central Sarawak.

This move to mine the 400 million tonnes of coal in Kapit is just the tip of the iceberg, claimed Bujang.

“Sarawak has more than a billion tonnes of coal and already, there are numerous mining projects being carried out, especially in the Mukah-Balingain region, which is part of the SCORE territory.

“In fact, a coal plant in Mukah has already been constructed and it is almost about to be completed. This (RM903mil) plant will use the coal as raw materials to produce electricity.

“This development is very worrying indeed because we (the institute) have never heard of any Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study being done or any Social Impact Assessment (SIA) survey being carried out for that project, yet that Mukah coal plant is about to be completed,” he said.

All this from casual reading of The Washington Post:

Man risks arrest, pneumonia to jog naked near White House.

By Megan Greenwell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 7, 2010

A man created a scene — and a Secret Service scare — near the White
House during rush hour Wednesday evening when he stripped to the buff
and took off running, leaving his bag of clothes unattended on the
Ellipse.

The man shed his clothes near 15th and E streets, at the northwest
corner of the Ellipse, about 5 p.m. Wednesday, then began running up
and down E Street, apparently not dissuaded by the 25-degree windchill
factor as the sun set, Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley said.

“He wasn’t yelling or protesting. Just going for a jog,” Wiley said.

“He was apprehended, naked though he was,” Wiley said.

But the man’s jog created another problem: The bag into which he
packed his clothes before setting off on his run had been left
unattended, meaning it had to be classified as a suspicious package.
The Secret Service cordoned off the area and investigated the bag,
and, after determining it contained only the man’s cast-off garments,
cleared the scene.

The man is in Secret Service custody but has not been charged, Wiley said.

————–

Republicans put new hold on TSA nominee Erroll Southers.

By Robert O’Harrow Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
The Washington Post, Thursday, January 7, 2010

The nomination of a former FBI agent to lead the Transportation
Security Administration (TSA) hit a new obstacle Wednesday as several
Republican senators expressed “serious reservations” about the nominee
and pressed the White House for details of incidents in which he
improperly accessed a confidential federal database years ago.
Republicans demand more facts about TSA nominee.

{mind you – these are the days we wonder why US Airport Security is leaking!}

White House officials had hoped to speed the confirmation of Erroll
Southers to revive confidence in an agency that has been leaderless
for months and in the spotlight since the attempted bombing of a U.S.
airliner on Christmas Day exposed intelligence and security lapses.

Southers’s nomination had been held up by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.)
because of concerns he would support the unionization of TSA workers.
On Wednesday, DeMint and six other Republican senators — including
John McCain (Ariz.), Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) and Tom Coburn (Okla.)
– demanded that the White House provide information about why
Southers initially gave Congress an incorrect account about the
searches two decades ago, incidents that led to his censure by the
FBI.

“We believe that Mr. Southers submitted erroneous, and possibly
misleading information regarding ethical violations during his service
with the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the senators wrote in a
letter to Nancy D. Hogan, special assistant to the president and
director of presidential personnel.

Also on Wednesday, Coburn placed a hold on the nomination, pending the
White House response to the senators’ questions.

The letter and Coburn’s hold follow a report in The Washington Post
last week that detailed how Southers provided differing accounts to
the Senate about incidents in 1987 and 1988 in which he
inappropriately accessed a federal database, possibly in violation of
privacy laws, in a search for records about his estranged wife’s
boyfriend.

In an Oct. 22 affidavit provided to the Senate homeland security
committee, Southers said he asked a San Diego police officer to access
the records. In November, after the committee’s ranking Republican,
Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), received a briefing about the censure
letter and noticed discrepancies in Southers’s account, she asked him
to explain the episode.

In a Nov. 20 letter, a day after the committee endorsed his
nomination, Southers acknowledged that his first account was
incorrect. He said that after reviewing documents, he realized he had
twice personally conducted the database searches.

Southers wrote that he was “distressed by the inconsistencies between
my recollection and the contemporaneous documents,” and he assured the
committee that “the mistake was inadvertent” and that he had accepted
responsibility for what he acknowledged was a grave error in judgment
many years ago.

In a statement Wednesday, a White House spokesman said officials did
not know of the discrepancies in Southers’s account until November,
well into the nomination process. The spokesman said the White House
remains solidly behind Southers as a well-qualified candidate who
simply had a lapse in memory.

“Neither in testimony nor in writing has Southers ever tried to hide
or mischaracterize this incident, and he has expressed that these were
errors he made in judgment that he deeply regretted, and an error that
he made in an account of events that happened over 20 years ago,” said
White House spokesman Nick Shapiro.

Shapiro continued, “In November the White House obtained the text of
the censure letter, requested additional investigation into the
discrepancies it revealed and provided briefings on the nature of the
discrepancies as well as a clarification of the sequence of events.”

The original posting of November 28th, 2009:

Now this is a bombshell we got from a very unusual source!

Was that just a story to pep up the spirits of Palestinians that feel they are victims of plain depression?

“Guess which of President Obama’s uninvited gala guests is a big wig on the board of the American Task Force on Palestine – the Palestinian lobby? None other than the male half of the social climbing phonies who crashed the White House state dinner the other night: Tareq Salahi.

His Bio was on the ATSFP list of board members – but in the past day or so, it’s suddenly been almost impossible to find it. {Anyway – we found it and it was on ATFP}}

I did the other day – but to my knowledge, not one newspaper – including The New York Times – or TV station has ever mentioned it. Here’s a website where you can find it,”  writes Richard Z. Chesnoff.

 http://blogger.huffingtonpost.com/mt.cgi…

Interesting, no?

This comes from a very solid source – The Huffington Post !!
 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-z-…

That is in:

OBAMA’S UNINVITED GUEST TAREQ SALAHI AND THE PALESTINIAN LOBBY?

{Read More: Obama White House, Tareq And Michaele Salahi, Tareq Salahi, Terrorism, War On Terror, White House, Politics News. – all links on the Huffington Post.}

By: Richard Z. Chesnoff, Veteran of more than 40 years of global news work
Posted: November 28, 2009 01:55 PM

———————-

further – the following information are excerpts from:
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con…

The Salahis staged a self-described “wedding of the century,” on Oct. 5, 2002, at the Cathedral of St. Matthew The Apostle in downtown Washington.

Tareq Salahi’s stake to local fame and wealth stems from the family winery, Oasis, in Fauquier County. It is one of Virginia’s oldest, founded in 1977 by Dirgham and Corinne Salahi. It was known for its sparkling blended wines, and it hosted large social events and provided an attractive tourist destination.

But it had fallen into debt in recent years. It became the subject of ugly local complaints about the disruption that the winery’s events caused on narrow back roads. And it devolved into a bitter family squabble pitting parents against son.

The family put it up for sale in 2007, and a year ago it was still on the market for $4.7 million. In February 2009, according to court records, the winery filed for bankruptcy. In a civil suit in Fauquier County Circuit Court last year, Dirgham and Corinne Salahi alleged that Tareq had interfered with the winery’s sale.

The bankruptcy papers for “Oasis Enterprises” describe the repossession last year of a 2004 Aston Martin valued at $150,000, and a Carver 350 Mariner boat valued at $90,000. The document lists $334,000 in assets and $965,000 in liabilities.

The couple’s latest listed address is in Mosby’s Overlook Estates in Front Royal. Travis Frantz, a neighbor and the president of the 28-property homeowners association, said he recently tried to put a lien on the Salahi home because they hadn’t paid dues since the first year they moved in. A settlement was reached in mediation, he said, adding that Tareq has not yet paid that amount.

The couple were not at home late this Friday. The two-story house, assessed at nearly $700,000, sits on a gravel road, near the top of a mountain overlooking Interstate 66. Parked in the driveway was a white stretch limo, with a vanity tag reading “VAWINE3.” Small stickers on both passenger doors advertise “America’s Polo Cup.”

Last year Michaele, now 44, told a Post reporter that she had been a Washington Redskins cheerleader, and she has been photographed at several alumni events. But the cheerleaders’ director of marketing, Melanie Coburn, wrote in an e-mail: “We have no record of her being a member of the Washington Redskins Cheerleaders.” Nor could the Washington Redskins Cheerleaders Alumni Association find any record of her, said Terri Crane-Lamb, president of the association.

One former cheerleader, Konnie McKee, said Michaele came to alumni events, but no one remembered her being on the squad. McKee and Crane-Lamb noticed Michaele attending WRCAA events. “I remember Terri and I talking: ‘What’s the deal? Does anyone remember her?’ “

Tareq Salahi launched America’s Polo Cup in 2007. He and the event were sued for more than $300,000 by Market Salamander, a high-profile catering operation in Middleburg in 2008, alleging nonpayment of services for a Polo Cup event that was widely panned. (The Salahis countersued.)

This spring, the organization hosted a United States-Italy polo match, with performances by Huey Lewis and the News and fireworks to benefit the Journey for the Cure Foundation, a Salahi-run charity that said it raised money for childhood diseases.
But the next week, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services sent out an official caution noting that the foundation had, as of three days after the event, “not registered with or been granted the appropriate exempt status by the Commissioner as required by law.” The organization’s Web site now lists a federal tax ID number.

——————-

The update is:

The couple was invited to testify before Congress today, December 3, 2009,  about how they gained admittance to a White House state dinner last week, but declined.

Our wonder is that in spite of all one can find on internet,  how nothing about the connection to a charity ball of the ATFP came to public attention as yet, a membership on a board at a politically active organization that does all sort of things to further Palestinian interests – different ways at different times. Now it seems that ATFP is actually working in hand with Jewish groups that want a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian dilemma. Whatever the truth behind the Salahi involvement, and the politics of this, even if the intrusion into the White House was all for show, but in light of precedents, and possibly justified hysteria, these connections better be studied by the Secret Service because we know that it could have ended differently.

It’s a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies:

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of  sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION:
Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

Thinking of Climate Change, and Copenhagen, I found this week-end Financial Times (November 28-29, 2009) quite amazing:

page 3 of Life & Arts section (- why that section? -) had the “Waving and Drowning” article about the very active President of the Maldives, who won elections last year replacing the longest ruling dictator in Asia, and since shot up to become the leader of the Small Islands Developing States in matters of climate change.

Rahul Jacob, the interviewer for the FT, subtitled the article – “Afternoon tea with the FT: Mohamed Nasheed, president of the Maldives, is determined to draw the world’s attention to the threat his country faces from rising sea levels, even if it means holding cabinet meetings under water.” I knew what he was talking because just last night, on the NOW program on CNN TV, David Broncacio showed a meeting of this underwater cabinet as they were preparing their document for the Copenhagen Conference. The FT describes the Presidential menu in the Male office included Fish rolls, Fishcakes, Tuna sandwiches, doughnuts and Lipton tea. The whole event was clearly courtesy of the melting ice at the two global poles.

The FT page had a small area – bottom left – on four ENGINEERED SOLUTIONS – one worse then the other. The fourth was: RE-ICING THE ARCTIC as a plan to save the world presented by Hazel Sheffield. The suggestion for the re-icing process is to spray salty water over the shores of Greenland.

But that was not all! page 5 of the same section was titled: “WHITE CHRISTMAS” and the point was that that YOU DRINK WHITE WINE IF YOU WANT TO HAVE A WHITE CHRISTMAS. Now I am convinced that we near deep trouble – under water covers, no ice and no red wine!

Will Copenhagen scratch at the problem?

From: Sylvia Gardner
November 16, 2009
Mechanical Miracles of the 21st Century

Mechanical Miracles of the 21st Century