Video - Dealing in Hot Air - Trading in carbon credits is becoming the new playground for organized crime, INTERPOL warns.

Video - Dealing in Hot Air - Trading in carbon credits is becoming the new playground for organized crime, INTERPOL warns.HT: SunNews.

INTERPOL says fraudsters are drawn to the schemes because "carbon credits do not represent a physical commodity but instead have been described as a legal fiction that is poorly understood by many sellers, buyers and traders."

In a new guide for law enforcement agencies, INTERPOL says criminals pulled off a reforestation scam worth an estimated US$80 million in an unspecified country.
"A country recently investigated a number of transactions in which people purchased forested land with boundaries that either did not exist or were poorly marked," INTERPOL says in the guide. "According to INTERPOL reports there is evidence that documents were forged and bribes paid to facilitate the process."
In other cases, dishonest people sold the same intangible credit to multiple buyers, making a tidy profit off global warming fears.
INTERPOL says the guide, produced with the help of Environment Canada and several other agencies, is meant to help police get a handle on green fraudsters.

BR/>

DOE Green Energy Loans: $11.45 million per job and a rounding error’s worth of averted carbon emissions.

DOE Green Energy Loans: $11.45 million per job and a rounding error’s worth of averted carbon emissions.HT: Wattsupwiththat. By David Middleton

The cost of each taxpayer-financed green energy job created since 2009:

$26.32 billion divided by 2,298 jobs = $11.45 million per job…

Green energy jobs and DOE loans are tallied under programs 1703 and 1705 on this list.

Permanent jobs created: 2,298

Taxpayer financed loan guarantees: $26.33 billion

19 of the projects cost more than $10 million per permanent job…

Even if you use the Obama maldaministration’s accounting methods and include temporary employment, the totally idiotic “jobs created/saved” category and include the 33,000 Ford Motor Company jobs “saved”, you get ~60,000 jobs at a cost of $34.5 billion –> $580,000 per job.

Bear in mind that Mr. Obama promised “to create 5 million jobs over 10 years by directing taxpayer funds toward renewable energy projects.” He’s currently 4,997,702 short of the 5 million mark.

I have handy cost estimates for three of the solar plants near the top of the list of $10 million-plus jobs. If I factor in the increased cost of electricity, the cost per permanent job literally skyrockets, as promised by candidate Obama in 2008.

The total cost to the economy per permanent “green energy” job created by these three solar PV plants is $82.3 million. If I add in the 2,450 temporary construction jobs that were created, the cost per job drops to $2.8 million per job. Hmmmm.......Obama: "All the Choices We've Made Have Been the Right Ones"Read and see the full story here.

Thunk! That’s the sound of the EU carbon credit inverse hockey stick hitting the floor.

Thunk! That’s the sound of the EU carbon credit inverse hockey stick hitting the floor.HT: Wattsupwiththat.By Anthony Watts.

After hitting record lows back in January, there was a plan to prop up the EU carbon market. That worked…for a while. Then the backloading plan was rejected, and the real market forces took over.

From: Environmental leader: EU Carbon Prices Plunge to Record Lows

Carbon prices hit record lows today after the European Parliament rejected an emergency plan to boost the ailing EU carbon market.

In a 334-315 vote, with more than 60 abstentions, lawmakers rejected a proposal to postpone — or backload — the auctioning of 900 million EU Emissions Trading Scheme allowances from the years 2013-2015 to 2019-2020. This measure was intended to rebalance supply and demand, and reduce price volatility.

European commissioner for climate action Connie Hedegaard said the plan will now go back to the Parliament’s environment committee for further consideration.Hmmm......Don't worry i'm sure Pres Obama will start Carbon trading soon in America......As P.T. Barnham allegedly said: "There's one born every minute'.Read the full story and more here.

"How Will a Carbon Tax stop or cure this?" - Melting Permafrost: 'Scientists Warn of Dangers of Trapped Carbon'.

"How Will a Carbon Tax stop or cure this?" - Melting Permafrost: 'Scientists Warn of Dangers of Trapped Carbon'.(Spiegel).Research published Thursday in the journal Science says that even slightly warmer temperatures could start melting permafrost, which in turn threatens to trigger the release of huge amounts of greenhouse gases trapped in ice.
The frosty dungeon hides a dark secret. At least a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere's landmass is frozen and, like a vault, it holds 1,700 gigatonnes of carbon. This unimaginably high quantity of carbon comes from countless generations of creatures that have lived and died in the area over millions of years.
A portion of those dead plants and animals weren't decomposed by microorganisms because, at a certain point, it was simply too cold for that. But the permafrost is slowly melting. If large areas of ground underneath were to thaw one day, the bacterial decomposition process would pick up where it left off, releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gases. In total, permafrost contains twice as much carbon as what is currently billowing through the Earth's atmosphere.
If major portions of that carbon become released, the world's climate would suffer fatal consequences. For this reason, scientists have for some time now been asking the frightening question of just how strongly global warming affects permafrost areas. Using ingenious measuring methods, they are meticulously monitoring the fate of the planet. A new study, published in the professional journal Science on Thursday, suggests that it's possible that even slightly higher temperatures could thaw out significant portions of the region's permafrost areas.
A portion of those dead plants and animals weren't decomposed by microorganisms because, at a certain point, it was simply too cold for that. But the permafrost is slowly melting. If large areas of ground underneath were to thaw one day, the bacterial decomposition process would pick up where it left off, releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gases. In total, permafrost contains twice as much carbon as what is currently billowing through the Earth's atmosphere.
In periods with higher tempatures, the permafrost retreats further north. The Lenskaya Ledyanaya Cave lies at 40 degrees north latitude, in an area currently on the border of continuous permafrost. If the temperatures rise another one or two degrees, to approach something like what they were in the interglacial period 400,000 years ago, the situation would most likely look differently. "That is probably the threshold where continuous permafrost becomes vulnerable," says Vaks.
If major portions of that carbon become released, the world's climate would suffer fatal consequences. For this reason, scientists have for some time now been asking the frightening question of just how strongly global warming affects permafrost areas. Using ingenious measuring methods, they are meticulously monitoring the fate of the planet. A new study, published in the professional journal Science on Thursday, suggests that it's possible that even slightly higher temperatures could thaw out significant portions of the region's permafrost areas. Read the full story here.

Carbon tax hallucinations.

Carbon tax hallucinations.(WUWT).By Paul Driessen.

Average planetary temperatures haven’t budged in 16 years. Hurricanes and strong tornadoes are at or near their lowest ebb in decades. Global sea ice is back to normal, Arctic ice is nearly normal, and the Antarctic icepack continues to grow. The rate of sea level rise remains what it was in 1900.

And yet, President Obama and many politicians, newscasters and alarmist scientists continue to insist that carbon dioxide emissions are changing Earth’s climate, and we need to take immediate action to prevent storms like Hurricane Sandy and avert catastrophes predicted by IPCC computer models and alleged “scientific consensus.” Not surprisingly, polls show public support for controlling CO2 output and taxing hydrocarbon use – to “ensure climate security” and “save vital federal programs” from budgetary axes.
As the liberal lobby Think Progress put it, people “overwhelmingly” prefer a carbon tax on “big polluters” versus cuts in favorite programs “like education, Social Security, Medicare and environmental protection.”
Five-alarm climate claims, skewed polling questions and phony taxes-versus-grandma budget alternatives will almost always ensure support for carbon taxes – especially among Bigger Government and Ban Fossil Fuels constituencies. More rational analysis reveals that dreams of hundred-billion-dollar windfalls from slapping regressive new taxes on job creation and economic growth are nothing more than dangerous tax revenue hallucinations. They would bring intense pain for no climate or economic gain.
Employing Energy Information Administration data, a recent Heritage Foundation study by economists David Kreutzer and Nicolas Loris found that a tax starting at $25-per-ton of CO2 emitted and increasing by 5% per year would cut a family of four’s income by $1,400 annually, raise their utility bills by $500 a year, and increase gasoline fill-ups by up to 50 cents per gallon. That’s $2,000 a year chopped from their budget for food, vacations, home and car payments and repairs, college and retirement savings, dental and medical care, and overall quality of life.
Even “millionaire” families making $200,000 a year would find such a hit painful. While the poorest families might get some offsetting tax relief, most would get nothing – nor would employers.
Carbon taxes would thus increase the likelihood that many breadwinners will end up unemployed, since the tax would raise business energy costs dramatically, force companies to trim hours and/or employees, and result in an aggregate loss of at least 1 million jobs by 2016, Heritage notes. That would bring more home foreclosures, greater stress, reduced nutrition, and more strokes and heart attacks, especially for older workers whose odds of finding new employment are increasingly bleak.

No small businesses or energy-intensive manufacturing companies would get a rebate for their soaring carbon taxes. Nor would any mall, hospital, school, church, synagogue or charity group.
Hydrocarbons provide over 83% of all the energy that powers America. A carbon tax would put a hefty surcharge on everything we make, grow, ship, eat and do. It would put the federal government in control of, not just one-sixth of our economy as under Obamacare, but 100% of our economy and lives. It would make the United States increasingly less productive, less competitive globally, less able to provide opportunities for our children.
But it gets worse, because this tax on America’s energy and productivity is not being promoted in a vacuum. It would be imposed on top of countless other job and economy strangling actions.
President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency has already issued 2,071 new rules and dispensed a regulatory burden of over $353 billion per year – equal to all wealth generated annually by Virginia’s private sector. It is now preparing still more rules, the most crushing of which would regulate the same CO2 emissions that some in Congress want to tax, from both moving and stationary sources. Most, if not all of its punitive rules, are based on exaggerated risks, fear mongering, junk science, and illusory health, welfare, “environmental justice” and “sustainability” benefits.
Other agencies are inflicting still more rules, and more crushing paperwork burdens. Obamacare alone will add 127,602,371 more hours per year to the federal paperwork burden for American businesses and families. That’s enough time to carve 1,039 Mount Rushmore monuments, says the Washington Examiner. Even at $25 per hour, that’s $32 billion a year. On top of that, there are the Dodd-Frank financial requirements and myriad other costly, time-consuming, economy-sapping, job-killing rules.

Meanwhile, federal “discretionary” spending skyrocketed another $129 billion annually in just four years under Obama. That’s comparable to what carbon tax snake oil salesmen claim a $25-per-ton tax would raise each year, several years into a steadily escalating tax, using static analyses that ignore all these “concrete lifesaver” effects.

And for what? The Kyoto Protocol is dead. Japan and many other countries are rejecting any new binding emission targets. China, India, other rapidly developing nations, and even Germany and Europe are burning more coal, emitting more carbon dioxide, and sending atmospheric CO2 levels higher.

And yet, average planetary temperatures show no trend up or down, and global hurricane activity stands at a near-record low. There’s no change in big tornadoes, droughts or rains averaged over the USA for the past century. Polar sea ice is down slightly in the Northern Hemisphere, but up in the Southern. And sea levels show no measurable deviation from trends over the last hundred years.

The only thing that will happen if carbon taxes are inflicted on the US economy is that American jobs, economic growth, living standards, health, dreams and lives will be sacrificed for nothing. 

We need to stop basing laws and policies on hallucinations – and start basing them on reality.Read the full story here.

Related : ShoreBank - Obama - CarbonTrading.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/229805/shady-shorebank-bailout/michelle-malkin

http://knowledgecreatespower.blogspot.com/2010/05/shore-bank-obamas-mother-and-geithners.html

http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/shorebank.php

SURPRISE: Carbon Tax bill coming Thursday.

SURPRISE: Carbon Tax bill coming Thursday.(WUWT). Senators Bernie Sanders and Barbara Boxer will outline the legislation on Thursday morning.

Billed as “major” and “comprehensive” legislation, and will have a carbon tax, Here is the statement from Sanders’ office (bold mine):

Sanders, Boxer to Introduce Major Climate Change Legislation

February 12, 2013

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 – Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) will hold a news conference on Thursday, Feb. 14 to announce comprehensive legislation on climate change. Boxer is Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Sanders serves on the environment committee and also is a member of the Senate energy committee.

Under the legislation, a fee on carbon pollution emissions would fund historic investments in energy efficiency and sustainable energy technologies such as wind, solar, geothermal and biomass. The proposal also would provide rebates to consumers to offset any efforts by oil, coal or gas companies to raise prices.

Environment and consumer leaders set to participate include Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org; Mike Brune, executive director of Sierra Club; Tara McGuiness, executive director of the Center for American Progress Action Fund; Tyson Slocum, Public Citizen’s energy director; and David Bradley, National Community Action Foundation executive director.

Who:

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)

Bill McKibben, 350.org founder

Mike Brune, Sierra Club executive director

Tara McGuiness, CAP Action Fund executive director

Tyson Slocum, Public Citizen’s Energy Program director

David Bradley, National Community Action Foundation executive director

What: News conference on climate change legislation

When: 11 a.m., Thursday, Feb. 14

Where: SD-406, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing room

Hmmmm......Hooooray another new tax coming aren't you glad you voted for Obama?Read the full story here.

Moscow hit hard by 'Global warming' myth, snowiest winter in 100 years paralyzes Moscow traffic for 3,500 km

'Red' Square.

Moscow hit hard by 'Global warming' myth, snowiest winter in 100 years paralyzes Moscow traffic for 3,500 km.(photos).(RT).The snowiest winter in a century has hit the Russian capital, causing Muscovites to get stuck in traffic jams 3,500km in length on Monday evening – the distance from Moscow to Madrid. ­Since the beginning of the winter, over 2 meters of snow (Nearly 7 feet) has fallen on the Russian capital, the Moscow mayor’s aide in housing and public utilities Pyotr Biryukov told Interfax. Snowfall is expected in Moscow for four or five more days, he added. 
On Monday, 45,000 community services employees and 15,000 units of equipment were attempting to cope with 26 cm of snow – nearly a fifth of the average annual fall. The latest snowfall has become a nightmare for drivers with the capital’s commuters trapped in gridlock. Many of those who left their workplace in the evening had to spend five to 10 hours getting home. The average speed of vehicles was no more than 7-9 km/h.
The number of road accidents – 3,000 – was much higher than during an ordinary day, with minor accidents quadrupling, according to Channel One TV. ­Pedestrians were having a hard time, too, trying to make their way through ice and huge snowdrifts on the sidewalks. Over 50 people were injured after falling.
On Tuesday morning, the streets became virtual ‘skating rinks’, with passengers of minibuses forced to push the vehicles up the hill from time to time, and then jumping into the moving vehicles.
Overnight, almost 150 huge trucks became stuck on the Moscow ring highway, blocking it for hours.
Moscow’s Yandex Traffic Jams application showed that traffic was at level 10, the highest possible.
Meanwhile, over a hundred flights were grounded at Moscow airports. Notably, Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev’s plane was unable to land in Vnukovo airport, and proceeded to St. Petersburg.
­It’s not the first time that Moscow has seen massive snowfalls this winter – in mid-January the situation was similar in terms of heavy falls – and traffic. Yandex Traffic Jams also recorded level 10 at that time.
In December, the harshest temperatures in 70 years were recorded, with thermometers showing temperatures as low as -50 degrees Celsius in some regions of Russia.
Meteorologists predict more snow is in store for Muscovites in February and March.
“March is considered a winter month here,” one top Hydro Meteorological Center official indicated to Interfax.Hmmm....You guess that's why Al Gore sold his tv Channel?Read the full story here.

Snowfall changes in Antarctica

Power chief: Carbon credits face a ‘junk bond’ future.

Power chief: Carbon credits face a ‘junk bond’ future.(Euractive).Europe is staring at a ‘lost decade’ that will make decarbonisation impossible and reduce carbon credits to the value of ‘junk bonds’ unless politicians back a carbon market reform package, the head of Europe’s electricity industry association has told EurActiv.

Last week, MEP’s on the European parliament’s industry (ITRE) committee rejected a proposal to firm up carbon prices by withholding – or ‘backloading’ – 900 million EU allowances from the 2020 auctioning period.

Analysts expect a narrow majority for action in key votes on the parliament’s environment committee on 19 February and, crucially, in a plenary later this Spring.
But Hans ten Berge, secretary-general of Eurelectric, warned that “if we choose the strategy of a lost decade then we are going for a collapse of the carbon market and it will be impossible to achieve the 2050 decarbonisation targets.”

Carbon prices, which are supposed to entice low-carbon investments, plunged to a record low of just €2.81 per tonne after the ITRE committee vote, down from a peak of €32 in April 2006. But ten Berge said that the price could yet fall further.

“Just ask investors what the value is of a bond that you would not be able to cash before 2025,” he said. “I think that would be called a junk bond.”Hmmmm....'There's one born every minute'.Read the full story here.

The Carbon-Tax-Swap Fantasy.

The Carbon-Tax-Swap Fantasy.(Heritage).By Katie Tubb.To its credit, the Obama Administration has yet to endorse a carbon tax.
Such a tax is promised as the one-two punch that will put a significant dent in America’s fiscal crisis and the supposed impending doom from manmade global warming. This “market-based” approach will, supporters promise, bring new revenue to pay down the debt while reducing carbon dioxide emissions in a way that is less economically damaging than a cap-and-trade program.
But look past all the promises of revenue neutrality, and what do you find? A mess of bad assumptions and special interests.

Assumption #1: A carbon tax would reduce global warming. Regardless of what the truth is about manmade global warming or how fast the climate is warming or changing, a carbon tax would have a negligible effect on the global climate. Environmentalists are eager to point fingers at China when the solar industry fails to succeed even with federal subsidies, but they don’t seem to notice that any American carbon controls would have a miniscule impact on world temperatures—even if you believe the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s estimates.
Though Europe is bending over backwards to reduce its emissions—and paying for it economically—almost all of the projected increase in world carbon emissions comes from the developing world and is unaffected by carbon controls in the U.S. and Europe.

Assumption #2: Implementing a carbon tax would buck historical precedent and remain revenue neutral. It is clear that some special interests stand to benefit from a carbon tax, no matter how well intentioned. Many are already staking out a share of the new revenue for special interests—before the carbon tax has even reached the Senate and House floors.
Several politicians and think tanks have signaled their acceptance of a carbon tax in exchange for a reduction in corporate income taxes (which will never creep back up, right?) or in place of more burdensome environmental regulations (which the left will happily drop after so many years of work, right?). Sadly, even some conservatives are falling for this bait-and-switch.
Bad assumptions lead to bad policy that either addresses symptoms rather than causes or does not address the problem at all and in fact creates a new one. Even if the tax somehow remained revenue neutral, a carbon tax ignores the federal spending (not revenue) problem and would certainly increase energy prices and sock the economy.
America’s economy—from electricity and fuel to food, products, and services—depends on conventional energy, and when prices go up, the effects ripple throughout the entire economy. A carbon tax would add an unnecessary cost that would be passed on to consumers, no matter how creative Congress can be in mitigating the effects with compensation caveats. Americans don’t want to pay more for energy—regardless of which scientists they believe about global warming.
Fossil fuels may make a convenient punching bag for politicians. But government-induced higher energy prices are bound to come swinging back and hammer the economy—along with everyday Americans.

The Guardian’s ridiculous claim of 75% Arctic sea ice loss in 30 years – patently false.

The Guardian’s ridiculous claim of 75% Arctic sea ice loss in 30 years – patently false.(WUWT).Reposted from “Haunting the Library” (well worth a bookmark), another clueless journalist combined with an artist/activist makes The Guardian look pretty darned stupid. Five minutes or less of checking would have prevented this blunder.
Guardian Goes “Full Stupid” on Arctic Ice, Contradicts Itself.
The Guardian managed to outdo itself in it’s latest foray into global warming, claiming that Arctic sea ice has declined by three quarters in the last three decades. In a series of “factoids” following an interview with pop celebrity and latest Greenpeace spokesperson for the Arctic ice, Jarvis Cocker, Lucy Seigle, the Guardian’s environment reporter, informed readers that:

Of the Arctic sea ice, 75% has been lost over the past 30 years. Last year saw sea-ice levels plummet to the second-lowest since records began. It is estimated that the North Pole could be ice-free in the summer within the next 10-20 years.
The Guardian. Jarvis Cocker: The Iceman Cometh.

However, the problem with this was not just it’s total departure from both reality and common sense, but the fact that an article in the Guardian only a couple of weeks beforehand had pointed out that this simply isn’t the case.
Quoting the Met Office’s Chief Scientist, Julia Sligo, the article noted that such claims were simply “not credible” -

She also said that suggestions the volume of sea ice had already declined by 75% already were not credible. “We know there is something [happening on the thinning of sea ice] but it’s not as dramatic as those numbers suggest.”
The problem, she explained, was that researchers did not know the thickness of Arctic sea ice with any confidence.
The Guardian. Met Office: Arctic Sea Ice Loss Linked to Drier, Colder UK Winters.

In fact, as the NSIDC points out, the extent of Arctic sea ice is very close to the average for the last three decades, not down by 75% as The Guardian’s environment reporter seems to be confused about:

Overview of Conditions
Arctic sea ice extent in April 2012 averaged 14.73 million square kilometers (5.69 million square miles). Because of the very slow rate of ice loss through the last half of March and the first three weeks of April, ice extent averaged for April ranked close to average out of 34 years of satellite data.
NSIDC: Arctic Sea Ice Extent Reaches Near Average in April.

Someone should really help them out over at the Guardian’s environment section. Do you have an hour or two to spare, some basic common sense, plenty of paper and some crayons?
I’ve extended that graph of Gleick’s down to the zero line, and annotated the 1980 and 2010 year values and the 75% loss of 1980 value line (3.125) for reference. As you can see, there’s a loooonnnng way to go from 12.5 million square kilometers in 1980 to 3.125 million square kilometers in 2010 to make a 75% loss in 30 years.

The Guardian is only off by 7.675 million square kilometers…close enough for journo work I suppose.Read the full story here.

How Green Was My Bankruptcy?

How Green Was My Bankruptcy?(WUWT).By David Middleton.My apologies to the memories of the late Richard Llewellyn and late John Ford; but I just had to borrow their title for this post. This paragraph from a 2010 Telegraph article really says it all…

Its 500,000 photovoltaic panels will generate 30 megawatts of electricity, enough, in the popular measurement, to power 9,000 homes. It is costing about $250 million to build, significantly less than a gas, coal or nuclear power station, which can easily exceed $1 billion. And it represents a sea-change in America’s energy business.
America has been notoriously devoted to hydrocarbon fuels. Big Oil, Big Coal and big Texan hats in the White House were seen by the rest of the world to be keeping it so, whatever the global interest. Oil barons funnelled money to scientists ready to pour doubt on the science of climate change, and conservative Republicans led the charge to pour scorn on those such as the former Democrat vice-president Al Gore who were urging Americans to rethink where their energy was coming from.

The power plant described in the preceding passage is the Cimarron Solar Facility, built on Ted Turner’s 590,823 acre ranch in northern New Mexico. It is indeed true that most natural gas- and coal-fired power plants cost a lot more than $250 million to build. However, it’s also true that most natural gas- and coal-fired power plants have nameplate generating capacities a bit larger than 30 MW…

TVA to build natural gas power plant
By DUNCAN MANSFIELD, Associated Press
Posted June 4, 2009
KNOXVILLE — The Tennessee Valley Authority on Thursday decided to build an $820 million natural gas power plant in northeastern Tennessee to comply with a North Carolina lawsuit over air quality.
The 880-megawatt combined-cycle gas plant would be as large as the 1950s-era, coal-fired John Sevier plant in Rogersville that a federal judge has targeted for new pollution controls on North Carolina’s behalf.
[...]
LINK

• $820 million divided by 880 MW works out to $931,818 per MW.
• $250 million divided by 30 MW works out to $8,333,333 per MW.

Assuming that the gas-fired plant managed an 85% capacity factor and a 30-yr plant lifetime, the initial capital expenditure would work out to $0.004/kWh… A bit less than half-a-cent per kilowatt-hour. Assuming a 25% capacity factor and a 30-yr plant lifetime for the Cimarron Solar Facility, the initial capital expenditure works out to $0.127/kWh… Almost 13 cents per kilowatt-hour! The average residential electricity rate in the US is currently around 12 cents per kWh… That’s the retail price. As a consumer of electricity, I know which plan I would pick. I’m currently paying about 9 cents per kWh. I sure as heck wouldn’t seek out a provider who would have to raise my current rate by about 50% just to cover their plant construction costs.
Solar photovoltaic electricity is bankruptcy the green way writ large. Here in Texas, Austin Energy has agreed to a long-term purchase agreement to pay $10 million a year for 25 years, for the electricity generated by the Webberville Solar Farm. That works out to more than 15 cents per kWh.

                                                           Full scale picture here.


In concert with his efforts to drive up the cost of coal- and natural gas-fired power plants, President Obama has aggressively pursued an agenda of financing expensive power plants with taxpayer dollars. Many of these taxpayer-guaranteed loans have gone to financially strapped companies, lacking the means to repay those loans. In most cases local utilities were coerced or enticed into signing long-term purchase agreements to buy electricity at nearly double the cost of coal- and natural gas-generated electricity. The sole justification for this “green” centralized industrial policy is the Lysenko-like junk science of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming.
The economics of this “green” centralized industrial policy are mind numbingly horrible.

                                                      Full scale picture here.

The capex for solar power plants averages between $6- and $7-million per MW of installed capacity. Coal-fired plants generally run less than $2-million per MW and natural gas plants currently run less than $1-million per MW. The average retail residential electricity rate in the U.S. is currently less than 12¢ per kWh. The levelized generation cost for the plants being financed by the Obama administration is more than 20¢ per kWh. His “green” centralized industrial policy will drive the wholesale cost of electricity to nearly double the current retail rate.
One need not literally seize the assets of businesses and install gov’t bureaucrats into management position to effectively nationalize those businesses. All it takes is to make them dependent on gov’t and/or direct their activities through regulatory constraints.Hmmmm.......Obama: "All the Choices We've Made Have Been the Right Ones".Read the full story here.

About David Middleton

I have been a geoscientist in the evil oil and gas industry for almost 30 years. My favorite hobby is debunking the junk science of the radical environmentalists...Particularly the junk science of anthropogenic global warming.    

MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• Egypt protests - live updates. BBC here. 11.59am: SandMonkey, the high-profile Egyptian blogger, a key chronicler of the protests who we have quoted frequently, has been arrested according to this tweet from @RamyYaacoub:I just called @SandMonkey's phone and a man answered and he asked me who I am, I said where is monkey, he said your cunt friend is arrested.Read updates here.

• Egypt volatile situation deteriorating very quickly !Civil war might become reality. Mubarak wont step down immediately.MFS: What if Mubarak would tell Obama keep your 1,5 Billion -i'll close the Suez canal?Lets see how you like those apples?   - Al Jazeera English - Live Streams From Egypt ! Here .
• Egypt protests on Twitter!  here.
• Liveblog - Egypt's protests erupt. here.
  
  
• Egypt: Mubarak Regime Accuses Obama of “Inciting Violence”…The Egyptian Foreign Ministry says calls for an immediate transition from the government of President Hosni Mubarak are inciting violence."What foreign parties are saying about 'a period of transition beginning immediately' in Egypt is rejected," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said, adding that such calls "inflame the internal situation in Egypt."Hmmm........Read the full story here.

• HT:InfidelBloggers.Did Washington green light Mideast uprisings?The political left in America based an entire campaign of slander, defamation and disinformation on one charge against former President George W. Bush, this being that he lied about Saddam Hussein's Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction. Yet the effluvia of intentional deceptions, misrepresentations and outright falsehoods purveyed by our current president on a weekly basis outstrips Bush's alleged lie by such bounds that there is simply no comparison.And while the situation may be satirized by some of us, the collaboration between radical leftist leaders and the establishment press truly represents one of the most perilous phenomena this nation has ever seen. Regardless of whether or not one believes that progressivism is a societal evil, the idea that nearly every major press outlet in the U.S. would irrevocably align itself with any political faction ought to be deeply chilling to each and every American.Given the mileage progressives got out of Bush's "lie" over a six year period, it is difficult not to laugh when Obama supporters demand that we back up our accusations concerning his being less than truthful. Where would one start? During the 2008 campaign? Since his inauguration? Or would the last 48 hours suffice?The major ones remain such things as pledging not to include lobbyists in his administration and then doing so anyway. Apropos his first stimulus bill, the president assured the nation that 90 percent of the jobs created would be in the private sector – knowing full well that most would be in the public sector, thus reinforcing the power of government and its union allies.Obama, the consummate smoothie, continues to argue that his propositions are for America's good – and with the establishment press acting as his bureau of propaganda, an inordinately large number of Americans continue to believe him. Despite this, it has been widely noted that everything Obama does appears calculated to exacerbate our difficulties, rather than ameliorate them.Which brings us to his foreign policy. In regard to the nation of Egypt (which is at the brink of civil war as I write this), we have a Muslim-indoctrinated, anti-Israel American president insinuating himself into the political workings of the only major power in the Middle East that has been moderate with regard to Israel. On Feb. 1, WND's Aaron Klein revealed the secret machinations of the Obama administration in support of the Muslim Brotherhood's campaign to topple Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.The Muslim Brotherhood – which is dedicated to the implementation of Shariah law on a global level. There shouldn't be much question as to Obama's twofold motivations here: to coalesce Muslim influence in the Middle East and compromise the security of Israel.Hello? Is it even plausible that President Obama is simply reacting to all of this – or is it more believable that Washington's yet-undetected fingerprints are all over this crisis?The depth and scope of Americans' perception and insight unquestionably leaves something to be desired here. It was worrisome indeed when otherwise sound-minded observers were taken by Obama's conciliatory words during the State of the Union address last month. Given the countless lies, clandestine measures and liberty-stultifying policies this president has employed, it is unfathomable to me that anyone given to cogent thought would see them as any more than, in Obama's own words of 2008, "just words."Hmmmmm......"They don't trust me because of my middle name" among a million other things....YES!Read the full story here.

• HT:WND.Egypt now fears Obama a 'Manchurian President'.'They are trying to understand why he is acting against U.S. interests'.Top members of the Egyptian government say they feel betrayed by President Obama, charging that he is acting against American interests. "Mubarak's regime feels Obama is pushing the advancement of the Muslim Brotherhood against U.S. interests," said WND's Jerusalem bureau chief and senior reporter Aaron Klein. "They are genuinely trying to understand why Obama is seemingly championing the anti-regime protests." Klein said that a top Egyptian diplomat with whom he has developed a rapport over the last few years asked him earlier this week to explain Obama's motivation to support the opposition to Mubarak. "I told him none of this should be a surprise," said Klein. "That the Obama administration has developed an extensive relationship over the last few years with allies of the Muslim Brotherhood."That my investigating has proven that Obama has been closely associated throughout his political career with radical-left elements who have long petitioned for policies many believe are aimed at weakening the American enterprise both domestically and internationally." "The Egyptian diplomat seemed surprised," said Klein. "I told him this material was thoroughly documented in my latest book." The diplomat requested 20 copies of Klein's New York Times bestselling book investigating Obama, "The Manchurian President: Barack Obama's ties to communists, socialists, and other anti-American extremists." The diplomat said he would deliver the book, which was co-authored by Brenda J. Elliott, to senior officials in Mubarak's embattled government. Obama in recent days urged Mubarak to give up power in Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood forms the main opposition. Mubarak has been a staunch U.S. ally and a recipient of billions of dollars in military aid. His regime has long been considered a stabilizing force in the Arab world. The Obama administration's support for the unrest is strikingly reminiscent of Jimmy Carter's support of the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, which marked the birth of modern Islamist expansion.Badi went on to declare the U.S. is easy to defeat through violence, since it is "experiencing the beginning of its end and is heading toward its demise." Barry Rubin, director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center, noted Badi's speech showed "the likelihood that more Brotherhood supporters in the West will turn to violence and fund-raising for terrorism." Frank Gaffney, president of the American Center for Security Policy, takes it a step further. "In short, the Muslim Brotherhood – whether it is operating in Egypt, elsewhere in the world or here – is our enemy," he wrote.The White House relationship with ISNA began even before Obama took office. One week before the presidential inauguration, Sayyid Syeed, national director of the ISNA Office for Interfaith and Community Alliances, was part of a delegation that met with the directors of Obama's transition team. The delegation discussed a request for an executive order ending "torture."ISNA President Ingrid Mattson represented American Muslims at Obama's inauguration, where she offered a prayer during the televised event. Mattson also has represented ISNA at Obama's annual Ramadan dinners, including the last such event in which Obama announced support for the rights of Muslims to build an Islamic cultural center and mosque two blocks from the site of the 9/11 attacks. In June 2009, Obama's top aide, Valerie Jarrett, invited Mattson to work on the White House Council on Women and Girls, which Jarrett leads. That July, the Justice Department sponsored an information booth at an ISNA bazaar in Washington, D.C. Also that month, Jarrett addressed ISNA's 46th annual convention. According to the White House, Jarrett attended as part of Obama's outreach to Muslims.Hmmmm.....Would the founding fathers have called it treason?Read the full story here.

• HT:TheJawaReport.Does the White House Think Mubarak is a Coptic Christian?Marc Ambinder, White House correspondent, thinks so.A number of White House officials were given an Encyclopedia Britannica-like briefing about the basics: how many U.S. citizens were inside the country and contingency plans to get them out; reminders that Egypt wasn’t a Muslim country; Hosni Mubarak was a Coptic Christian of a certain sect; the Muslim Brotherhood was at once an opposition political party and a co-opted part of the social system . . .Is the White House trying to lay blame on Coptic Christians? Or are they fecking stupid? Mubarak is a Sunni Muslim AND Muslims compromise 90% of the population. The Muslim Brotherhood is more than an opposition political party.Read the full story here.

• HT:NewZeal.ElBaradei's Unsavory Associates!Self appointed spokesman for the Egyptian "revolution" Mohamed ElBaradei is not a man to inspire confidence in pro-Western circles.As head of the U.N's International Atomic Energy Agency (1997-2009) ElBaradei cultivated a circle of advisers, a "kitchen cabinet" - that included an accused Russian spy, Canadian national and IAEA Verification and Security head Tariq Rauf.However it is ElBaradei's service on the Board of the International Crisis Group that should really set alarm bells ringing.With a staff of 130, based in 46 countries and an annual budget of $15.5 million, the I.C.G. is an influential but little publicized organization.According to I.C.G.'s own website;The International Crisis Group is now generally recognised as the world’s leading independent, non-partisan, source of analysis and advice to governments, and intergovernmental bodies like the United Nations, European Union and World Bank, on the prevention and resolution of deadly conflict. Our work has been applauded by, among others, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (‘a global voice of conscience, and a genuine force for peace’)...A more accurate description might be - meddlesome cabal of internationalists, mega "capitalists", socialists and communist troublemakers.ElBaradei's I.C.G. Board colleagues include.......Hmmmm......Definitely a case of out of the frying pan...in to the fire!Read the full story here.

• It's time for Obama to say Kefaya!It's hard to think of any other candidates at the present time.Tonight in his State of the Union address the world will learn whether President Obama has any of his once celebrated vision, courage and audacity left in him, or if he's been so thoroughly beaten down by the forces that actually run Washington that he can barely muster support for the young people around the Arab world who are increasingly saying "Kefaya", Enough!, to their governments, and the larger global system that has kept them in power for so long.It's probably too much to ask the President to say "Kefaya" to the forces that have so circumscribed his once progressive vision.So the question really needs to be asked - whose interests is President Obama serving by remaining silently supportive of the status quo when he could, and by any measure, should, be lending vocal, public support for the peoples of the Arab world as they finally rise up against their leaders?
  Is it companies like Lockheed Martin, the massive defence contractor whose tentacles reach deep into every part of the fabric of governance (as revealed by William Hartung's powerful new book, Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military Industrial Complex)?Is it the superbanks who continue to rake in profits from an economy that is barely sputtering along, and who have joined with the military industrial complex's two principal axes-the arms and the oil industries-to form an impregnable triangle of corrupt economic and political power?It's hard to think of any other candidates at the present time.The evidence strongly points to the attacks on protesters as being regime-authorised and organised-- Unorganised mobs don't truck in camels and horses from the pyramids or arrive by the busload. The frightening part is, it is highly unlikely that US intelligence officials weren't aware of Mubarak's and Soliman's plans to foment chaos and violence, order the army to stand by while it unfolded, and then have them call for protesters to leave, thus providing a pretext for further violence against protesters. And yet Obama has continued to resist endorsing the protesters' call for his immediate resignation.These are the wages of Obama's unwillingness to take a direct, early, public and forceful stand in full support of the pro-democracy movement. His wavering and sending back-door diplomats only gives the impression that the US is either working with the regime to help quash the protests and enable Mubarak to stay on long enough to ensure a new government continues to follow American policies, or at the very least has done nothing to stop this process from unfolding. But Egyptians will remember this, and whether or not Mubarak succeeds in holding on to power till the fall, it is likely that the Egyptian people will hold President Obama and the United States at least partly responsible for the bloodshed that is threatening to destroy their revolution.Hmmmm......The defenition of "Kefaya" enough?Are they asking the President to become a dictator?Read the full story here.

• Video: Vandals rip heads off two mummies in Egyptian Museum.Vandals ripped the heads off two mummies and tossed relics onto the ground in Cairo's Egyptian Museum, the country's antiquities chief said Sunday.But the group of about nine people did not manage to steal anything from the museum's collection, according to Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.The would-be thieves, who broke into the museum Friday around 6 p.m., were arrested and jailed, Hawass said.The museum has stepped up security and is now guarded by Egypt's army, he said.The antiquities chief said 10 small artifacts were also damaged, but can be restored.The Egyptian Museum is located in Cairo's Tahrir Square, which has been a focal point for anti-government protests.Hmmm......Even the mummies are loosing their head these days in Egypt.Read the full story here.

• 20,000 join Yemen's 'Day of Rage'.Arab unrest permeates Sanaa, protesters demand change beyond president's retirement in 2013.Further anti-government protests were expected across Yemen, which Saleh has ruled for over three decades, and supporters of the president were driving around the capital urging Yemenis over loudspeakers to join pro-government counterdemonstrations. But by early morning, anti-government protesters had already gathered the largest crowd since a wave of protests hit the Arabian Peninsula state two weeks ago, inspired by protests that toppled Tunisia's ruler and threaten Egypt's president. "The people want regime change," protesters shouted as they gathered outside Sanaa University. "No to corruption, no to dictatorship." Saleh, eyeing the unrest spreading in the Arab world, indicated on Wednesday he would leave office when his term ends in 2013, and promised his son would not take over the reins of government, among a host of other political concessions.US President Barack Obama telephoned Saleh to express support for his initiative, the state news agency Saba said. "You have handled the situation well, and I look forward to working with you in a good partnership between the two countries," it quoted Obama as saying. Hmmmmm.......That "outreach to muslims" is really bearing fruit Mr President,half of the Middle East is about to explode!Read the full story here.

• Obama regime administration threatens climate veto.The Obama administration Wednesday repeated its threat to veto legislation that would curb its ability to regulate greenhouse gases. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said that the White House continues to oppose any efforts from Capitol Hill to hamstring her agency on climate change.“What has been said from the White House is that the president’s advisers would advise him to veto any legislation that passed that would take away EPA’s greenhouse gas authority,” Jackson told reporters on Capitol Hill. “Nothing has changed.” EPA’s climate policies came under attack this week when Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) — backed by a host of co-sponsors — rolled out bills Monday to hamstring EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.But despite the increasingly vocal calls from the GOP and some Democrats to scale back EPA’s authority to clamp down on heat-trapping emissions, Jackson pledged to defend her agency’s rules. “These efforts would halt EPA’s common-sense steps under the Clean Air Act to protect Americans from harmful air pollution that until now has not been regulated at all from any sources in this country,” Jackson told reporters today after an appearance before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.Hmmmm........Follow the dots to Chicago.....Carbontrading.....the ex - shorebank and Obama.One billion Dollars for re-election is an awfull lot of money!Read the full scam story here.

• House Republicans eye UN budget in vote next week.WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are eyeing reclaiming hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. contributions to the United Nations in a vote slated for next week.The move is the latest in a series of votes scheduled by GOP leaders, based on polling of people who visit a “YouCut” website they created last year.Options include seeking a refund of unused U.S. contributions to U.N. peacekeeping activities, demanding return of U.S. overpayments into a fund that reimburses U.S. employees for taxes paid on their U.N. salaries, or prohibiting the government from giving economic aid to countries that hold large amounts of U.S. debt.The potential savings range from $46 million to $180 million, a drop in the bucket when measured against the nation’s projected $1.5 trillion deficit.Read the full story here.

• HT:TheJerusalemBlog.Petition: US must veto anti-Israel UN resolution.Earlier this month, 120 UN member nations co-sponsored a draft resolution to the Security Council condemning Jewish communities in the West Bank (known to Israel’s enemies as “the settlements”). The resolution’s aim is to pressure the US to “pick a side.” In its language, the resolution delegitimizes Israel by isolating settlements as the only factor in halting the peace process. It says that “Israeli settlements established in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and constitute a major obstacle to the achievement of a just, lasting and comprehensive peace.”When this resolution comes to a vote in the UN Security Council—a 15-nation panel— the US must veto this bias resolution. A non-veto will rightfully spark a crisis in US-Israel relations as it will mark the first time a US president has allowed an anti-Israel resolution to go through the Security Council. We wait to see what the US administration will decide. According to TJCI contributing editor Victor Sharpe, “If Obama withholds his veto power and allows the brutal anti-Israel and anti-Jewish resolution to pass, he will commence what many have said he has always planned to do; set in motion an existential threat to Israel’s basic security and very survival.”Hmmmm....Sign the petition cause we all know"They don't trust me because of my middle name"among a million other things.Read the full story here.

• HT:NewsRealBlog.Obama to Muslim Brotherhood: Hello, Come Right In!The Obama Administration says it would approve of the inclusion of the Muslim Brotherhood in the next Egyptian government if it explicitly rejects violence and endorses democracy—which, by the standards of the Brotherhood and its naïve apologists, the group already has.The West shouldn’t be fooled by the Brotherhood’s semantics. The top Brotherhood theologian, Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi, has spoken in support of elections and “democracy” and “freedom,” but by “freedom” he means the true “freedom” that can only come from Sharia law, not secularism. And when the Brotherhood condemns the use of violence, it is only referring to in Egypt where popular support is a better tool than violence. They aren’t referring to anywhere else, especially in Israel and the Palestinian territories. After all, Hamas is a branch of the Brotherhood. This is from Article 2 of Hamas’ 1988 Constitution:The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the wings of Moslem Brotherhood in Palestine. Moslem Brotherhood Movement is a universal organization which constitutes the largest Islamic movement in modern times.I don’t know if the White House’s statement regarding the Brotherhood is a recognition of reality or a severe misinterpretation of reality. The Brotherhood is a major player in Egypt and the U.S. can’t ban them from taking part in the electoral process, especially when they are part of the El-Baradei coalition.It’s possible that the White House judged it was better to just accept this fact. On the other hand, it is possible that the White House is being deceived by Brotherhood apologists that claim the group is moderate and democratic. Reza Aslan even wrote that it is a “good thing” for the Brotherhood to play a major role in Egyptian politics.The big question now is who has the White House’s ear. Is it those who are better versed in John Esposito or those who are better versed in the Holy Land Foundation?Read the full story here.

• HT:SultanKnish.Will Ethanol Break the Muslim World After All?Ethanol has proven to be an inadequate solution to the problem of foreign oil, but it has toppled at least one Arab ruler and may not be done yet. The Soros backed college students and the Islamists have done their part in the protests, but the Tunisian and Egyptian mobs would never have made their showing without a goad. And the goad was high wheat prices. Part of the spike in wheat prices was due to the shift to ethanol production.Remember when Americans were lining up with cans of gasoline during the OPEC oil boycott? Arab Muslims are now in the same boat, except with bread, rather than oil. Arab countries are frantically buying wheat, especially after the events in Tunisia and Egypt. Regime stability in the Middle East is now tethered to wheat prices. The Arab has prided itself on the power to pressure America using the price of oil, but the United States has now proven that it can do the same thing to the Arab world with the price of wheat. The price of oil may be climbing in America, but in Saudi Arabia the price of wheat is up by more than half.Read the full story here.

• Turkish FM hits back against Dutch party's claims.Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu refused Wednesday to respond to a question on comments from the Dutch far-right Freedom Party calling Turkey a totalitarian country, saying he saw no need to answer such an “irrelevant question.”“If somebody calls Turkey totalitarian, I don’t need to answer such a question,” Davutoğlu told a joint news conference with his visiting Dutch counterpart, Uri Rosenthal.The comments came in response to a question from a Dutch journalist about the Freedom Party’s description of Turkey. In the Netherlands, the Liberal Party and the Christian Democrats formed a minority government following last year’s elections. Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders, who claims Islam equals fascism, backs the Dutch minority government."If somebody calls Turkey totalitarian, I don't need to answer such a question. He doesn't know what totalitarianism means, what the democratic atmosphere of Turkey is and what Europe's values are. For us, our counterpart is the Dutch government," Davutoğlu said. “As the government, we know their position. It is important for us.”Hmmmm.......Iran Turkey the worst violator of human rights indeed.Read the full story here.

• Muslim councillor receives death threats over Asia Bibi blasphemy case.A Muslim Conservative councillor has received death threats after taking up the case of a Christian woman sentenced to death in Pakistan for blasphemy.Raza Anjum travelled to Pakistan in December and spent three weeks meeting political leaders urging them to release Asia Bibi, a mother-of-five found guilty of defaming the Prophet Mohammed, a conviction that human rights campaigners say is unsafe. In one threatening phone call, which he has reported to police, he was told to “stop supporting Christians or he would be made a terrible example out of”. He told The Daily Telegraph he had received five violent threats since returning, all from people claiming to be Muslim and speaking with British accents. “The British Muslim community need to be more proactive in speaking out against those who promote hatred and violence” said Mr Anjum, 25, who sits on Saffron Waldon Town Council. “I will stand up against these extremists.” The case of Asia Bibi has unleashed dark forces in Pakistan.Human rights activists say the legislation — toughened under the hardline rule of General Zia ul-Haq — is being used to settle scores and persecute religious minorities.Hmmmm....."Islam the religion of peace".Read the full story here.

• Somali convicted of attacking Danish cartoonist.AARHUS, Denmark (AFP) – A court on Thursday convicted a 29-year-old Somali man of attempted terrorism and attempted murder for attacking a Danish cartoonist who caricatured the Prophet Mohammed.The court in the central Danish town of Aarhus ruled that Mohamed Geele not only tried to kill Kurt Westergaard when he broke into his home on January 1, 2010, wielding an axe and a knife, but that the attack also amounted to an act of terrorism."The court deems that the attempted murder of Kurt Westergaard in his own home, (of the man who) personifies the Mohammed cartoon affair, must be considered as an attempt to instil a heightened level of fear in the population and to destabilise the structures of society," which falls under the Danish anti-terrorism law, judge Ingrid Thorsboe told the court.The verdict was reached by a unanimous jury, she added.Westergaard, 75, had testified during last month's trial that Geele rushed in screaming "You must die! You are going to Hell!", forcing the cartoonist to escape "certain death" by rushing into a bathroom-turned-panic-room to call police.The Somali had threatened police with his axe and knife before being shot twice and placed under arrest.Geele insisted during the trial he was only trying to scare the cartoonist.The Aarhus court is scheduled to rule on Geele's sentencing Friday. The Somali risks life in prison.Hmmmm......His lawyer did not want him to be accused of terrorisme?Read the full story here.

• "Life or death in Iran's Prisons".Ministry of Intelligence Orders Removal of Hossein Ronaghi Maleki’s Infected Kidney.The physical health of Hossein Ronaghi Maleki held in ward 350 of Evin prison is severely deteriorating, but authorities have ignored the situation. His life is at serious risk.According to HRANA, the Ministry of Intelligence has not approved a sick leave for Hossein Ronaghi Maleki and, instead, ordered the removal of his infected kidney, even though the Evin prison doctors believe that a laser operation on his kidney will allow for it to function again without removal.Hossein Ronaghi Maleki had no health issues prior to his imprisonment and the kidney infection began while he was held in ward ward 2A of Evin prison (controlled by the IRGC).Additionally, two Revolutionary Guard agents (whose names HRANA has not revealed but has stored in their database) have interfered with the case due to their own personal reasons (Hossein’s family had once filed a complaint against them) and added new charges to his case file, resulting in Hossein being denied sick leave.Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, blogger, human rights activist, and the person in charge of the Iran Proxy group was arrested on December 13, 2009 in Malakan by the Revolutionary Guard forces. He was immediately transferred to ward 2A in Evin prison.He spent a year in solitary confinement and endured various forms of physical and mental torture. Finally, on December 19, 2010, he was tried in an illegal court to give a television interview. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison by Judge Pir Abbasi in branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court.The charges for Hossein Ronaghi Maleki are “Membership in the Iran Proxy group”, “Insulting Ayatollah Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad”. Due to the interference of the IRGC with his case, his sentence was upheld by branch 54 of the Appeals Court in Tehran.Read the full story here.

• Iran Sends Defiant Message to West With Claims of Technological Advances.Dubai, United Arab Emirates (AP) - An Iranian supercomputer. New space rockets and satellites carrying the flag of the Islamic Republic. Biotech innovations that include artificial tendons.Iran's claims of scientific advances are coming at a rapid-fire pace these days as the country begins events to mark the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.It's become part of annual celebrations of scholarship and military might. But this year, there is an added message to the West after the latest talks over Iran's nuclear program fizzled in January: Tehran's ability to make atomic fuel remains at the heart of the country's drive for home-grown technology."The government's support for science and technology is an unchangeable strategy," said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last month at a high-tech trade exhibition in Tehran. "This includes the nuclear efforts."Iran plans a major tech exhibition beginning Saturday in Damascus, Syria, whose underlying purpose seeks show that international sanctions have not crippled Iran's labs.The expo is expected to showcase an array of made-in-Iran innovations from more than 120 companies including precision industrial equipment, nanotechnology and aerospace-related items. No nuclear technology is on the list.An Iranian diplomat in Syria told The Associated Press that the five-day exhibition -- the first of its kind outside Iran -- aims to show "friend and foe" that sanctions have not slowed Iran despite claims by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to brief reporters.Meanwhile, Iranian officials have unveiled an array of purported advances in recent weeks, including a new gamma radiation units for medical treatments and a supercomputer billed as among the top 500 most powerful in the world.Read the full story here.

• The Germ of Hate Spreads in Russia.The terror attack on Moscow's main airport last week has fuelled the flames of xenophobia in Russia. The Kremlin isn't intervening to halt the trend that could cause deep rifts in the country's multiethnic society.The wreckage at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport had hardly been removed before a young man in St. Petersburg had incorporated the attack into his election campaign.Andrey Kuznetsov, a computer engineer with neatly parted brown hair, is campaigning for a seat in the regional parliament as a representative of the extreme right-wing party Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI). Kuznetsov wants to see guest workers that have come to St. Petersburg from Central Asia and the Caucasus expelled or at least required "to live in certain neighborhoods, so that they can be monitored more easily."On Tuesday, the day after the suicide bombing at Domodedovo Airport, which has been traced to groups in the Caucasus, DPNI supporters protested in St. Petersburg's Kupchino neighborhood. One of the party's activists had been stabbed and wounded by an Azerbaijani."The war in the Caucasus has arrived in our cities," says Kuznetsov. "We send them money, and they send us terrorists." President Dmitry Medvedev's strategy of trying to pacify the region with billions in investment is a "bad joke," says Kuznetsov. "The experiences in Germany and France show that Muslims do not assimilate. We have to keep them out."The right-wing extremists' demands are also meeting with approval among ordinary citizens. A radical form of Islam is gaining the upper hand in the Caucasus. More than 40 percent of Russians favor the secession of the region. The number of attacks there has doubled within a year, and hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians have fled to Russia. The wars the Kremlin waged in Chechnya and Georgia were in vain, and today the majority of Russians no longer want Chechens, Dagestanis, Ingush and Balkars as fellow citizens.Twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, terrorism is challenging not only Moscow's control of the Caucasus but also Russia's future as a multiethnic society. The country is home to more than 100 nationalities. Muslims make up 20 million of a population of 141 million, and seven million guest workers contribute to prosperity in Russia. In surveys, however, 36 percent of Moscow residents say that they feel "hatred" toward Chechens.A few days after Putin's appearance, the Moscow police chief announced that he intended "to examine whether liberal and democratic principles are truly compatible with the interests of the public." He wants to reintroduce the strict Soviet-era registration system, which significantly limited unrestricted movement around the country.However, betting on the chauvinistic feelings of a deeply insecure nation has always been risky. In 2003, the Kremlin launched the nationalist Rodina (Motherland) Party, headed by the charismatic politician Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's current ambassador to NATO in Brussels. When Rodina promptly captured 9.2 percent of the vote, Kremlin planners dropped their support for the party because of its "xenophobia."Hmmmm......The "War" with the Caucasus did not start in the 20Th century and probably wont stop in the 21Th Century.Read the full story here.

• Sharia Brutality on a Raped 14 year old Girl ,lashed to death in Bangladesh .A girl named Hena, age 14, was murdered by local Sharia Committee at Shariatpur in the southern part of Bangladesh. The daughter of poor farmer named Darbesh Kha, Hena was forcefully abducted and raped on January 30, 2011 during late at night by Mahbub, age 40. During this abuse, villagers arrived in response to the cries of Hena. At the same time, the imam of the local mosque, a man named Mofiz Uddin, and a few teachers of Madrassa [Koranic School] led by Saiful Islam, also arrived; instead of taking any action against the rapist, the Muslim clergymen took Hena inside the Madrassa and locked her in a room. The following day, the same imam and some of members of the Sharia Committee in the village sat for a trial of Hena on charges of "immoral sexuality" before marriage. Later the committee decided to punish Hena with 200 lashes, and took financial penalty of only TK. 10,000 [US$ 150] from the rapist.During the lashing, Hena became unconscious; when she was rushed to the nearby village hospital, the attending doctors declared her dead.After lodging a murder case with the local police station, a few influential members of the local mosque committee, as well as Sharia Law Committee, are telling members of media that Hena was involved in "immoral activities," and the villagers caught her red-handed while she was having physical relations with a villager; and that later the Sharia Law Committee punished Hena for such anti-Islamic and immoral activities. They denied admitting that Hena died during being lashed. Further, a few political leaders in the area are frantically trying to save the rapist and the members of the Sharia Law Committee.Hmmmmm......."Sharia Law And US Constitution are The Same" Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.Read the full story here.HT:TROP.

• HT:StrategyPage.One Gurkha, 40 Bandits, No Contest! For the last five months, India has been celebrating and honoring a retired Gurkha soldier (Bishnu Shrestha) who, singlehandedly killed three bandits, wounded eight and drove off another 30. This incident occurred five months ago, and since then Shrestha has been given medals, cash and accolades for his outstanding valor and prowess. The Indian Gurkha regiment he recently retired from persuaded him to return to active duty so he could receive a cash award and a promotion. Bishnu Shrestha father had also served with the same unit, and retired from it 29 years ago. All this occurred because Bishnu Shrestha was on a train where about forty bandits, pretending to be passengers, suddenly revealed themselves, and, armed with knives, swords and pistols, stopped the train in the jungle, and proceeded to rob the hundreds of passengers. When the bandits reached Shrestha, he was ready to give up his valuables, but then the 18 year old girl sitting next to him was grabbed by the robbers, who wanted to rape her. The girl, who knew Shrestha was a retired soldier, appealed to him for help. So he pulled out the large, curved khukuri knife that all Gurkha soldiers (and many Gurkha civilians) carry, and went after the bandits. In the narrow isle of the train, a trained fighter like Shrestha had the advantage.Bishnu Shrestha, however, took the legend a step further, by defeating 40 armed bandits all by himself. That was just a bit unusual, even for a Gurkha. But not unexpected.Read the full story here.