Taypayer Handouts and Ripoffs

Government to Account for More Than Half of Healthcare Spending

February 07, 2010

The Health Care Blog - Amid all the gloomy numbers in the latest government projections for health care spending, one statistic stands out: Public sector involvement in health care this year will surpass private sector spending for the first time in U.S. history.

The actual projections show it will only reach 49.3% of $2.57 trillion, but that assumes Congress won't throw more money at physicians at the end of this month when previously legislated cutbacks in Medicare pay are slated to go into effect. Congress can't pass health care reform, but spending more on physicians (mean salary for cardiologists and radiologists in 2009 was over $400,000) has unusual bipartisan support.

What's driving the growing public role is no mystery: With unemployment at 10 percent and underemployment widespread, millions of Americans have lost employer-based coverage and now must rely on public sector programs. Even where people remain employed, their firms can no longer afford skyrocketing premiums and thus are abandoning or cutting back on coverage.

And there's no end in sight to those trends, even with an improving economy. Health care spending, which surged to 17.3% of gross domestic product in 2009 from 16.2 percent in 2008, the largest single jump in the history of government recordkeeping, is slated to rise to 19.3% in 2019, a year when the public sector will account for 51.9% of the $4.49 trillion health care economy. And that's without paying physicians more.

Here's another way to look at it: In 2019, U.S. government agencies at the state and federal level ALONE will spend 10% of GDP on health. That's a greater share of economic activity than many other highly industrialized nations that insure everyone, yet the U.S. will still have one in six or seven people without any coverage at all at some point during the year.

Recession Chugs on, Except in Government

February 8, 2010

Examiner Editorial - White House apologists were quick to point to the unemployment rate decline from 10 percent to 9.7 percent as evidence that the recovery is gathering momentum and that President Obama's policies -- especially his $787 billion economic stimulus bill Congress approved last February -- are "working." But the back story behind the figures provides cold comfort.

First, the drop to 9.7 percent unemployment does not reflect the creation of new jobs that normally accompanies an economic recovery. The number of new jobs is actually declining. Total nonfarm payroll employment, for example, dipped by an additional 20,000 positions after a December decline of 150,000 positions.

The unemployment rate the day Obama took office last year stood at 7.6 percent and 134.6 million people had jobs. When he signed the economic stimulus, Obama promised the bill would bolster the economy sufficiently to keep unemployment below 8.0 percent. But the unemployment rate has exceeded 8.0 percent since last fall, and total employment stands at only 129.5 million. The stimulus has been a bust.

Second, anybody who thinks the job situation is going to improve dramatically in coming months is not paying attention to what's going on behind the unemployment rate. The Hudson Institute's Diana Furchtgott-Roth notes that:

“This is a better employment report than last month’s report, yet the economy is still not creating jobs. The percent of the unemployed who are out of work for 27 weeks or more exceeded 41%, an all-time high. This is unacceptable and shows that Congress and the President need to focus on job creation, rather than on expanding government, because the tax increases and borrowing used to expand government reduce overall job creation and create uncertainty."

Furchtgott-Roth further notes that "the labor force participation rate is the lowest since mid-1985." This means that fewer Americans are in the labor force.

Third, among the few sectors of the economy showing net employment growth over the past year is the federal government. The federal civil service is rapidly expanding as Obama increases the size of government, with 33,000 new positions being added in January alone. Only 9,000 of those new slots were for temporary census jobs. In other words, what we are seeing is good times for the public sector and the growing prospect of a continuing and perhaps even deepening recession for everybody else.

Civil Liberties, Health Care, Food Policies

North Carolina Residents Fumed Over Weekend Alcohol, Firearm, Driving Ban

February 8, 2010

WXII1 (King, N.C.) - Residents in King were fumed over the weekend after a state of emergency declaration restricted the sale of alcohol and the carrying of firearms in vehicles.

King Police Chief Paula May said she’s received hundreds of threats related to the restrictions, which banned driving from 12 a.m. Sunday to 5 a.m.

The state of emergency for King was declared by members of the City Council after Stokes County authorities also declared a state of emergency.

Under North Carolina law, May said, when a state of emergency is put into place that includes a ban on driving, the sale of alcohol and carrying of firearms in vehicles is also banned.

“I think there’s been some misinterpretation that I personally have declared martial law and taken away people’s right to bear arms and that’s erroneous,” May told WXII reporter Jermont Terry. “By law, statue 14-288.7 automatically went into effect. And that law which goes into effect when there’s a state of emergency prohibits the transportation, purchase sale and possession of firearms other than on one's own premises.”

The news of the ban created a firestorm of criticism.

“This is absolutely the craziest thing I have ever heard. So far fetched that I am speechless!” one post on WXII12.com read.

“This has to be the most ridiculous event of the century!!!!! This is the ultimate denial of liberties for the most asinine reason...bad weather!!!” another poster wrote.

May said officers did pull people over who were in violation of the curfew driving ban, but no tickets were issued.

“We did find some people on the streets,” May said. “We didn’t take any enforcement actions. We spoke to the people driving and helped them to get to where they needed to be.”

May wouldn’t give details on the types of threats other than to say they had been phoned, faxed and e-mailed.

“We have to take them all serious and we’ll investigate to the best of our ability and determine the source of those threats,” she said.

The state of emergency was lifted Monday morning.

Frightening Taste of Internet Censorship as Major Free Speech Websites Blocked

February 8, 2010

Prison Planet.com - With influential proponents recently calling for a newly regulated world wide web, we got a preview of how that might look this past weekend after both Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com were completely blocked to many Internet users in New Zealand.

The block was only removed early this morning following a raft of complaints after both websites were unavailable on many ISP’s since Friday.

As the New Zealand based InfoNews website reported yesterday, both of Alex Jones’ flagship websites were blocked by ISPs using Asia Netcom for their international internet traffic.

It is important to stress that we receive emails on a weekly basis informing us that our websites have been blocked as “hate speech” or “offensive material” at Internet cafes, libraries, transport hubs, workplaces, and numerous other buildings not only in the United States but across the world. The censorship is being done at the ISP level, so whereas some people in a particular country will still have access, others will be blocked.

As we reported in 2008, London’s St. Pancras International, which millions of people traveling across mainland Europe pass through every year, completely blocks Prison Planet, Infowars and even more mainstream political websites as a matter of course.

In 2007, MySpace admitted their policy to censor and filter out posts containing links to the Prison Planet.com website, adding that the MySpace server automatically blocks such information. The social networking giant, as well as others such as Facebook, periodically block links to Alex Jones material and only revoke such filters when people complain.

In 2005, Time Warner subscribers from New York to California reported that their access to Infowars and Prison Planet had been blocked due to “hate speech,” before their access was restored.

UK ISP Tiscali also blocked the websites following the 7/7 London bombings in 2005.

Infowars’ social network was also blocked by libraries in the U.S. in 2008 using Safesquid and Google filtering software.

We receive numerous reports every single week of Alex Jones’ websites being blocked by ISPs and by filtering software in public buildings ...

Paramilitary Police and Private Prisons

License to Kill? Intelligence Chief Says U.S. Can Take Out American Terrorists

Director of National Intelligence Says Intelligence Community Can Target Citizens Presenting a Terrorist Threat

February 3, 2010

ABC News - The director of national intelligence affirmed rather bluntly today that the U.S. intelligence community has authority to target American citizens for assassination if they present a direct terrorist threat to the United States.

Information gained from the Christmas Day bomber has officials on high alert."We take direct actions against terrorists in the intelligence community; if … we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that," Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told the House Intelligence Committee.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra D-Mich., addressed the issue at today's hearing.

"The targeting of Americans -- it's a very sensitive issue, but again there's been more information in the public domain than what has been shared with this committee," he said.

"There is no clarity." Hoekstra said. "What is the legal framework?"

"Whether that American is involved in a group that is trying to attack us, whether that American has -- is a threat to other Americans. Those are the factors involved." Blair explained. "We don't target people for free speech. We target them for taking action that threatens Americans."

According to U.S. officials, only a handful of Americans would be eligible for targeting by U.S. intelligence or military operations. The legal guidance is determined by the National Security Council and the Justice Department.

In the past, the U.S. has killed Americans overseas but they were viewed as "collateral damage." In 2002, the CIA killed American-born Kamal Derwish, a member of the "Lackawanna 6" terror group during a CIA Predator drone strike. Derwish was driving in a car with other members of al Qaeda, the government said.

In 2008, a missile strike in Somalia killed American Ruben Shumpert, a Seattle man suspected of being an Islamist radical. Shumpert was wanted by federal authorities on gun and counterfeit currency charges. He had agreed to plead guilty but fled the country days before sentencing in 2004.

The Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al Awlaki, who has become a prominent influence with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, was at a meeting with leaders of the terror group when U.S. officials knowingly launched a cruise missile strike to eliminate the terror leaders. Several people were killed but Awlaki survived ...

The Final Push for World Government

Secret Summit of Top Bankers

February 6, 2010

Herald Sun - The world's top central bankers began arriving in Australia yesterday as renewed fears about the strength of the global economic recovery gripped world share markets.

Representatives from 24 central banks and monetary authorities including the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank landed in Sydney to meet tomorrow at a secret location, the Herald Sun reports.

Organised by the Bank for International Settlements last year, the two-day talks are shrouded in secrecy with high-level security believed to have been invoked by law enforcement agencies.

Speculation that the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Dr Ben Bernanke, would make an appearance could not be confirmed last night.

The event will be dominated by Asian delegations and is expected to include governors of the Peoples Bank of China, the Bank of Japan and the Reserve Bank of India.

The arrival of the high-powered gathering coincided with a fresh meltdown on world sharemarkets, sparked by renewed concerns about global growth and sovereign debt.

Fears countries including Greece, Portugal, Spain and Dubai could default on debt repayments combined with disappointing US jobs data to spook investors ...

Paramilitary Police and Private Prisons

Think Government Is Corrupt? You May Face 10 Years In Jail

February 8, 2010

Prison Planet.com - Subversives who think government is corrupt and should be controlled by the people face 10 years in prison and a $25,000 dollar fine if they fail to register with authorities in South Carolina, in another chilling example of how free speech and dissent is being criminalized in America.

The state’s “Subversive Activities Registration Act” is now officially on the books and mandates that “Every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States … shall register with the Secretary of State.”

Of course, the right to overthrow a government that has become corrupt, abusive and completely unrepresentative of its electorate is enshrined in the Declaration of Independence – that’s how America came to be a Republic in the first place – advocating or teaching that the people should “control” the government via their elected representatives is a basic function of a democratic society, but this law effectively makes it a terrorist offense.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness,” states the Declaration of Independence.

Under the sweeping terms of the law, members of tax protest organizations, the Tea Party movement and the States’ Rights movement based in South Carolina are all domestic terrorists if they fail to register their dissent with the authorities.

It is important to stress that the notion this law somehow only applies to “Islamic terrorists” is completely at odds with the fact that federal and state authorities now consider the main terror threat to be from informed American citizens exercising their constitutional rights in opposition to the big government agenda they are being subjected to.

As we saw with the MIAC report and a plethora of similar training manuals which were leaked over the last decade, police are being trained that libertarians, gun owners, Ron Paul supporters and anyone who is mildly political is a domestic extremist and a potential terrorist – these people are the real target of the subversives list in South Carolina.

The infamous Phoenix Federal Bureau of Investigation manual (page one, page two) produced in association with the Joint Terrorism Task Force listed “defenders of the U.S. constitution” and “lone individuals” as terrorists. Will anyone in South Carolina who defends the Constitution, the very bedrock of what America stands for, have to register with the authorities unless they want to be locked up for a decade?

Of course, since nobody is going to register as a “subversive” with South Carolina authorities, their failure to “comply” with the regulation will later be used against them as a means of eliciting criminal charges, in what represents a clear end run around the First Amendment.

The government isn’t going to just come out all guns blazing and ban free speech, they are simply going to make anyone who refuses to register for permission a criminal for failing to adhere to a separate mandate.

Just like people in places such as New York and Chicago were told that they had to get a license to purchase a gun – at first the process was a mere inconvenience but now the licensing process means they have to jump through 200 flaming hoops and the second amendment has effectively been outlawed in these cities.

They won’t hesitate to pull the same tricks with the First Amendment, and it’s already happening with calls to license Internet users and force them to get government permission to run a website.

Intelligence Community Sets Precedent for Exterminating U.S. Citizens

February 8, 2010

SkyWatch Canada & Infowars.com - In the spring of 2009 the Department of Homeland Security published their Domestic Extremism Lexicon. This document expanded the scope of the DHS mission from hunting islamic suicide bombers and mass murderers to targeting American Anti-Abortionists, Tax Protesters, Constitutionalists, and any other enemy of the state.

This in itself was shocking enough, but when combined with DHS’s Project Endgame it is clear that the policy of the Department of Homeland Security is to round up illegal immigrants and “potential terrorists” / domestic extremists and lock them up in detention camps built by Halliburton subsidiary KBR.

On February 4th The Washington Times posted an article entitled ‘Permission’ Needed to Kill U.S. Terrorists. The article paints a picture of how inconvenient it is to get permission to kill overseas Al Qaeda members as it is just inevitable that they will be many casualties as a result of the war on terror, and how stupid it is to give Al CIA-Duh members constitutional rights.

But looking beyond the most obvious implications of this article there are a few big questions readers should also be asking. The first and most obvious is why National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair did not want to discuss the criteria for killing a ‘terrorist’? The second is why any US citizen would be denied the right of due process especially while facing a death sentence?

In the specific states in America in which the death penalty is permitted by law, capital punishment is only doled out after a thorough investigation and TRIAL. But to overrule the justice system meant to protect Americans and to grant permission for an execution is a type of policy that would have been put in place in Nazi Germany.

When a government is given permission to exterminate its opponents without a real trial and real evidence, a new precedent is set.

It now seems that labeling anti-abortionist extremists as enemies of the state and locking them up in detention camps is not audacious enough. In addition to indefinite detention of American citizens, the US government is now allowed to exterminate them by merely asking (as the article put it) ‘permission’.

It’s expected that most would read this article and tell themselves “The Government wouldn’t exterminate an average American for opposing abortion”. Just remember, policy is about what the Government is allowed to do, not what it should do.

It’s time to wake up citizens, you are living in Nazi Germany. You better support your government otherwise they might just send you to Auschwitz.

Bankrupting the Common People

Failed Job Seekers Add to Homeless Problem in North Dakota

February 8, 2010

Associated Press - North Dakota has the lowest unemployment in the nation and a booming oil industry. But with its good fortune has come an unexpected problem: homelessness, as desperate job seekers flow into the state looking for work.

Officials say shelters are full statewide. Some homeless newcomers are living in cars, while others are bunking with acquaintances to avoid freezing.

Louis "Mac" McLeod is executive director of the Minot Area Homeless Coalition. He says people come to North Dakota without researching jobs or housing. They find out they aren't qualified for the jobs available, or if they land work, they can't find housing, which is scarce.

Michael Carbone of the North Dakota Coalition for Homeless People says half of North Dakota's homeless are employed.

Unemployed Moving to North Dakota for Jobs in Oil Industry Can't Find Housing

February 8, 2010

Associated Press - More than almost any other state, North Dakota has escaped the worst effects of the national recession, but with its good fortune has come an unexpected problem: homelessness, as desperate job seekers flow into the state looking for work.

Statewide, shelters are full, and soup kitchens are feeding as many as they can. Some homeless newcomers are living in cars, but as temperatures linger below freezing, many are bunking with acquaintances to avoid freezing.

Many of the job seekers came to North Dakota without researching jobs or housing, said Louis "Mac" McLeod, executive director of the Minot Area Homeless Coalition. They arrive to find they are unqualified for the work that exists, or if they land a job, they can't get housing, which is scarce.

"If you got a roof over your head, stay there," McLeod advised. "We want people to come to North Dakota, but we don't want people coming here and not being able to survive."

Most don't understand how severe North Dakota's winters are, he said:

"Put your hand in a freezer for five minutes — welcome to North Dakota."

Eric Cisneros, 27, drove 700 miles from Colorado to North Dakota about three weeks ago on a tip from a buddy who landed a job in the oil fields. He's been spending nights in his truck or staying with new acquaintances in Minot. The town of about 36,000 is home to a college and a U.S. Air Force Base but has no permanent shelter for the homeless.

Most of North Dakota's smaller cities and towns lack shelters and other services for the homeless. That may be because large-scale homelessness hasn't been a widespread problem before.

Last year, 987 homeless people were counted in a survey that recorded people encountered by volunteers in a single day, said Michael Carbone, executive director of the North Dakota Coalition for Homeless People. That was an 18 percent increase from the previous year's count of 836. This year's figures aren't yet available.

Cisneros said he plans to tough it out even though North Dakota is "probably the coldest place on the planet."

In Colorado, he worked as a laborer and carpenter, competing with dozens of people for each job. In Minot, he found a job as a cashier at a truck stop and has applied for oil industry jobs.

"Initially, it's been tough in North Dakota but in the long run, I think it will be worth it, because there are jobs here," Cisneros said.

North Dakota has about 8,500 unfilled jobs and the lowest jobless rate of any state, at about 4 percent.

But jobs don't guarantee housing. Half of the homeless people in North Dakota are employed, Carbone said.

Housing of any type is rare in Williston, in the heart of North Dakota's oil patch. Two city-owned trailer parks that were abandoned when the oil industry tanked 20 years ago are full again. Still, developers remain leery of the oil industry's boom-and-bust cycle and have been slow to build new apartments or homes.

"Housing is horrible here — there's nothing," said Lisa Hoffman, a supervisor at the Northwest Human Services Center.

"The shelters are full and the motels are full, but everybody is coming here thinking they'll get one of these big oil jobs," she said. "If they do, they might end up staying in campers or with other people."

Homeless shelters in bigger cities are filling up fast, in part because of the lack of services in smaller communities, said Dan Danielson, director of Fargo's New Life Center, the state's largest shelter. The number of people staying there each day has jumped from 76 in 2008 to about 100, he said.

Lured by the prospect of high pay in the oil industry, most job seekers don't realize many open positions are "entry-level, service-type jobs," Danielson said. But some might come anyway.

"I believe people are moving to North Dakota out of desperation," he said. "If you're coming to North Dakota, you're probably escaping a pretty significant situation."

Eddie Samuels, 47, fled Seattle's "rough and tough" economy on a bus to Fargo in December.

"The word on the street was North Dakota has jobs and the money is supposed to be pretty good," he said. "I got here and found ain't nothing moving right now and I don't have connections."

He bought warm clothes at a thrift shop and found a spot in a shelter. Like others, he's hoping for an oil job, but in the meantime, a pharmaceutical company is paying him to wear a patch containing a drug it's testing.

"I think they're trying to find a cure for Alzheimer's," he said. "When your down on your luck, you do what you can — it's something and it beats nothing."

State officials discouraged others from trying their luck in such circumstances. The best thing for people seeking work in North Dakota to do is fill out applications online through Job Service North Dakota, agency spokeswoman Beth Zander said, emphasizing:

"You should not come up here and look for work."

RFID, GPS Technology and Electronic Surveillance

Google Camera Helps Nab Alleged Tree Killers

February 1, 2010

Wired - Forget about all of those ubiquitous police surveillance cameras in your city: the new sheriff in town is that shifty Google Maps camera wheeling through your neighborhood.

Recently, a property owner in Canada was charged with illegal removal of trees after a Google camera helped capture the evidence, according to CanWest News Service.

Last May in Vancouver, Margaret Burnyeat allegedly hired a company to remove 23 cedar, cypress and evergreen trees from two adjacent lots she owned. Neighbors alerted the police, who found some stumps that hadn’t yet been removed.

Luckily for the city, one of Google’s Street View cameras — strapped to cars and driven through neighborhoods to photograph high-resolution, 360-degree images that are then linked to Google’s online mapping tool — caught some of the culprits in action.

The Google camera just happened to be passing through the neighborhood when the axing occurred and caught a truck on the site, as well as workmen and a row of fresh tree stumps.

Authorities say they’re uncertain whether they’ll use the Google image in their prosecution.

“Our city’s legal department is aware of that. How they will use that as evidence, I’m not clear. But it is an interesting new dimension, perhaps, of legal evidence,” a city spokeswoman told the news service.

The property was later listed for sale in September for $1,648,000, with a notation that there were “no big trees” on the lots. Burnyeat, her daughter and the tree cutter they hired have all been charged with violating the city’s tree law.

The law requires a permit to remove any tree above a certain size. Burnyeat had obtained a permit to remove only two of the 23 trees. The fine for illegal removal ranges between $500 and $20,000 per tree.

Ironically, Canadian authorities have been some of the most resistant to the presence of Google’s controversial cameras in streets. The company launched its Street View service in parts of the U.S. and Canada in 2007 and have since expanded to 12 other countries.

But after the Canadian privacy commissioner and others raised questions about whether the roaming cameras were legal, because Google collected identifiable images of people without their consent, the company implemented an automated feature that blurs faces and license plates. The company will also consider removing some images from its service upon request from the public or governments.

Google Street Pics May Violate Canadian Privacy Law
EFF Privacy Advocate Sighted in Google Street View
Request for Urban Street Sightings
Want Off Street View? Google Wants Your ID and a Sworn Statement
Google Asks NSA to Help Secure Its Network

Climate/Clean Energy Bills & Carbon Trading Schemes

Get the Facts on the President’s State of the Union Energy Claims

House National Resources Committee
January 28, 2010

President Obama: “You can see the results of last year’s investment in clean energy – in the North Carolina company that will create 1200 jobs nationwide helping to make advanced batteries; or in the California business that will put 1,000 people to work making solar panels.”

While the government spends millions of dollars to create green jobs, they are promoting job-killing policies that harm existing energy jobs.

In the last year, the Administration blocked new offshore drilling, cancelled existing oil and gas leases, withdrew shale research and development leases, proposed billions in higher taxes on energy production, erected more red-tape and bureaucracy into American-made energy on federal lands, and failed to offer renewable energy permits on federal land.

We need to create green jobs, but with 10 percent unemployment we need to do so much more. The President should support an all-of-the-above energy plan that creates all types of energy jobs: nuclear, wind, solar, oil, natural gas, hydropower, mining, and manufacturing.

Job creation should not be limited to those few types preferred by the elites in Washington D.C. - Americans need every job we can get.

President Obama: “That means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country.”

Republicans have been vocal advocates for building new nuclear power plants to create clean, reliable energy and made it a central part of their all-of-the-above energy plan, the American Energy Act, introduced last June.

President Obama should support this plan that calls for the construction of over 100 new nuclear power plants over the next 20 years.

Although the President now claims to support nuclear power, he slashed funding for Yucca Mountain. Expanding the use of nuclear power will be impossible if this Administration doesn’t support efforts to properly dispose of nuclear material.

President Obama: “It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development.”

Just days after taking office, this Administration reinstated a defacto ban on offshore drilling. Deciding whether or not to create over a million new American jobs shouldn’t be a difficult decision.

According to a report by the American Energy Alliance, permanently lifting the moratoria on energy production in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) would create 1.2 million new, well-paying jobs annually across the country; $8 trillion in additional economic output; and $70 billion in additional wages each year.

Additionally, the federal government would collect over $2.2 trillion in total tax receipts – which would help reduce the trillion dollar Obama/Pelosi budget deficit.

President Obama: “And yes, it means passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America.”

The President speaks as if the Waxman-Markey climate bill is somehow an all-of-the-above energy plan, when it’s really just the opposite. It’s a job-killing national energy tax that will spike energy bills, send American jobs overseas, and devastate our economy.

According to the President’s own Administration, this National Energy Tax will cost families $1,700 a year.

This bill will cause Americans to pay higher prices to import energy and resources from foreign countries with far lower environmental standards than our own.

President Obama: “…providing incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future – because the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy.”

The Republican American Energy Act focuses on job creation and protecting our environment by encouraging innovation in the marketplace.

By developing American energy, including more offshore energy production, we can use the revenue raised from leasing to provide direct funding for renewable energy projects.

While the Democrats’ National Energy Tax will kill millions of American jobs and send them overseas, the Republican plan focuses squarely on creating ALL types of energy jobs by encouraging development of renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, hydropower, nuclear and biomass, while also producing more American-made oil and natural gas.

Venture Capitalist Bullish on Green Startups
Green investors should go geothermal, says VCH
Renewable power growth to beat coal: Alstom
Clean tech: can sovereign wealth help?
Cleantech "needs billions" to scale up: fund
China's green tech revolution
UK Conservatives plan fund to boost green technology
Green power goal to add more jobs, study suggests
Historic EPA Finding: Greenhouse Gases Harm Humans
Factbox: EPA sets 2010 U.S. renewable fuel standard
Coal Concerns Lead U.S. Climate Bill Challenges
Obama Awards $2.3 Billion 'Clean Energy' Tax Credits
Climate Control Supporters Focus on 'Clean Energy' Job Creation
Green power goal to add more jobs, study suggests

Taypayer Handouts and Ripoffs

The Electric Car Revolution Will Soon Take to the Streets

January 21, 2010

YaleEnvironment360 - For years, the promise and hype surrounding electric cars failed to materialize. But as this year’s Detroit auto show demonstrated, major car companies and well-funded startups — fueled by federal clean-energy funding and rapid improvement in lithium-ion batteries — are now producing electric vehicles that will soon be in showrooms.

Electric cars are a green movement that is finally moving. Shunted to the side as the public indulged its love affair with gas-guzzling SUVs and four-wheel-drive trucks, history has finally caught up with the plug-in vehicle.

The North American International Auto Show in Detroit is the domestic auto industry’s biggest annual showcase, and the new models have traditionally been brought out in a son et lumière of dancing girls, deafening music, and dry ice smoke. The few green cars that made it this far were usually for display only — very few actually made it to showrooms.

But not this year. It’s become a race to market for green cars, and soon you’ll be able to buy many of the electric vehicles that were on display last week in Detroit. The auto show featured one hybrid and battery electric car introduction after another. Although the only truly road-worthy, plug-in electric vehicle you can buy today is the $109,000 Tesla Roadster, by the end of 2010 it will be joined by such contenders as the Nissan Leaf, Coda sedan, and the Think City.

Indeed, the entire auto industry — from giants such as Ford, GM, and Renault-Nissan to startups such as Fisker Automotive — has joined the movement to build and market affordable electric vehicles.

There’s a reason the automakers in Detroit are finally plugging in as something more than a greenwashing exercise. Spurring them forward is a historic confluence of events. Chief among them are Obama administration green initiatives, including Department of Energy (DOE) loans and grants, as well as economic stimulus funds that provide $30 billion for green energy programs, tax credits for companies that invest in advanced batteries, and $2.4 billion in strategic grants to speed the adoption of new batteries. (Much of that money is going to Michigan, which despite record unemployment is emerging as something of a green jobs center.)

Other factors behind the push to manufacture electric vehicles are a federal mandate to improve fuel efficiency to an average of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016, concerns about global warming and peak oil, and sheer technological progress building better batteries ...

Obama Speeds Government Purchase of Hybrid Cars to Replace Federal Fleet
Green Executive Order: Feds Must Cut Emissions 28% By 2020
Obama Orders Government to Slash GHG Emissions 28%

GM to Spend $455 Million on Thai Expansion

GM filed for bankruptcy protection on June 1, 2009. The U.S. government now owns 60% of it in return for $50 billion in funding to keep the company afloat while it is being reorganized. Canada owns 12%. A union health trust received 17.5% ownership in lieu of the $20 billion needed to cover benefits for 650,000 retirees. Bondholders received 10% ownership in lieu of $27 billion in bonds. GM will shut-down 11 factories and close 40% of its 6,000 dealerships. In May, GM stock fell below $1 a share for the first time since the Great Depression. - The Facts Behind Why GM Filed for Bankruptcy (Source: CNN; Washington Post)

January 29, 2010

Reuters - General Motors Corp announced plans on Friday to spend 15 billion baht ($455 million) in Thailand over the next two years, reviving plans for a new diesel-engine plant and retooling existing production lines.

The expansion at its existing plant in Thailand's Rayong Province, a region dubbed "the Detroit of Asia" for its large concentration of global carmakers, will be financed by 13.5 billion baht local syndicated loan, GM executives said.

The rest will be provided through injection of equity by the Detroit automaker to its wholly owned Thai unit.

Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial Bank and Tisco Bank signed contracts pledging to provide GM (Thailand) Ltd the credit line.

GM executives said the company would spend $150 million building a diesel-engine plant with a 106,000-unit annual capacity and another $330 million retooling the plant's machinery.

"After the retooling process needed for our next generation pick-up trucks and special utility vehicles, our annual capacity would be around 120,000 units," Steve Carlisle, GM chief executive for South East Asia, said.

GM had shelved the diesel engine project in late 2008 after the global financial crisis forced its Detroit head office to seek a U.S. government bailout.

With the downturn of the auto industry in 2008 and 2009, GM's Thai car and truck output plunged to around 40,000 units in 2009 from 104,000 a year earlier.

Industry data showed GM sold 15,111 vehicles in Thailand in 2009, down from 22,204 in 2008. GM executives said on Friday they expected the recovering auto sector would help raise its output to about 60,000 units this year, of which about 60-70 percent are to be exported.

Tim Lee, Shanghai-based president of GM operations outside the United States and the European Union, told Reuters his firm and its Chinese joint venture partners expected to sell over two million vehicles in China this year, up from 1.83 million in 2009.

"China's recent decision to curb bank loans has not yet affected our business and we are prepared to participate in the industry's further growth in this big market," Lee said.

China is the world biggest auto market with total vehicle sales of 13.6 million units in 2009.

RFID, GPS Technology and Electronic Surveillance

Wi-Fi-Based Real-Time Locating System Introduces Money-Back Guarantee

First-time purchasers of the company's Wi-Fi-based real-time locating system can try it for 30 days, then, if not pleased with the results, get the installation fixed to their satisfaction for free, or receive a full refund.

February 5, 2010

RFID Journal - Businesses that still have doubts regarding whether real-time locating systems (RTLS) designed to manage assets or individuals would work in their facility now have a risk-free option to purchase a system without any guarantees, or to launch a limited pilot to test the technology on a small scale.

Ekahau, a provider of Wi-i-based RTLS technology, is bringing a 30-day refundable option to market, offering a provision that, if the system fails to meet a user's needs, the company will correct the problem at no cost—or remove the system and refund the customer's money.

... In a large business such as a hospital, Rutanen says, pilots that are run in small sections of one building, such as on a particular floor or several floors, do not offer a clear indication of just how the system would work across the entire building or campus. In addition, he adds, "pilots do have expenses; they take time, money and effort."

Ekahau can afford to make such an offer due to the nature of the technology it provides. The system requires very little infrastructure, the company reports, since it leverages existing Wi-Fi access points.

... If a site's existing Wi-Fi system turns out to be inadequate, Ekahau or the hospital would install additional Wi-Fi access points, but in approximately 95 percent of the cases, Rutanen says, the existing coverage is sufficient. Once the customer purchases and installs the necessary battery-powered Wi-Fi RFID tags and software (as well as additional access points, if necessary), it has 30 days to determine if the RTLS provides the performance its business requires. If not, Ekahau will fix the problem at no cost, or remove the system components and refund the end user for those components, as well as for the site survey and any installation costs the client may have been charged.

The company has already provided the system to several customers that opted for the Zero-Risk System Guarantee, and expects the guarantee will lead to additional orders for its RTLS technology, from companies in the health-care, manufacturing, logistics and hospitality industries.

Health care has seen the greatest growth in RTLS usage, Rutanen notes, so he expects to see the most activity in that industry.

RTLS technology is currently the highest growth segment in RFID, says Michael Liard, ABI Research's practice director for RFID, with a compounded annual growth rate of 28 percent forecasted for the period from 2009 to 2014, according to a study conducted by the research firm. Not all RTLS customers have applications that would be well suited for a Wi-Fi-based RTLS, however—for example, a business that requires high granularity (the ability to pinpoint a tag's location within a room, for instance) might not be happy with a Wi-Fi-based solution.

Still, Liard says, those inclined to use Wi-Fi RTLS RFID tags might be encouraged to employ a system provided by a vendor that has enough faith in the product to provide a guarantee. While 30 days may not be long enough to determine a return on investment, he notes, it could offer customers an opportunity to ensure that the technology works.

"I think it's great whenever a vendor backs up its technology—that's good news for the vendor and the customer," Liard states.

If an offer like this leads to a significant increase in Ekahau's business, he adds, other vendors may feel the pressure to make a similar offer as well.

Climate/Clean Energy Bills & Carbon Trading Schemes

Effort Underway to Suspend California's Global-Warming Law

Conservatives propose an initiative that would delay curbs on greenhouse gas emissions until the state's unemployment rate drops to 5.5%, a level not seen since 2007.

February 6, 2010

Los Angeles Times - Republican politicians and conservative activists are launching a ballot campaign to suspend California's landmark global-warming law, in what they hope will serve as a showcase for a national backlash against climate regulations.

Supporters say they have "solid commitments" of nearly $600,000 to pay signature gatherers for a November initiative aimed at delaying curbs on the greenhouse gas emissions of power plants and factories until the state's unemployment rate drops.

GOP gubernatorial candidates and Tea Party organizers paint the 2006 law, considered a model for other state and federal efforts, as a job-killing interference in the economy. Talk radio is flailing at what John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou, drive-time hosts on Los Angeles' KFI-AM (640), call "the global-warming final solution act" promoted by "fascist, Nazi" officials.

"We are on fire," said Assemblyman Dan Logue (R-Marysville), a sponsor of the proposed initiative. "People are calling from all over the country. This will be the most intense campaign the state has seen in 50 years."

Mary D. Nichols, chairwoman of the state's Air Resources Board, which is implementing the law, known as AB 32, called the initiative "a campaign that has to be taken seriously."

"It would put all our efforts at energy efficiency and renewable energy in the deep freezer for a long time," she said.

The measure would halt proposed regulations until the state's jobless rate dips to 5.5% or below for a year. That's a level that California has not seen since 2007. California has one of the nation's highest unemployment rates: 12.4%.

The effort to ignite a revolt in the Golden State comes as years of industry-backed campaigns have sown doubts about the scientific consensus behind global warming and as the public has become more concerned about the economy..

A survey by the Pew Research Center found that 28% of the public considers global warming a high priority, a drop of 10 points from 2007. The economy and jobs topped the agenda. Federal climate legislation, after passing the House last year, is stalled in the Senate.

No major California company has endorsed the initiative yet. But Gino DiCaro, a spokesman for the California Manufacturers and Technology Assn. said last month:

"The state's greenhouse reduction program is not a freebie. Large costs foisted on an unemployment-riddled state economy and increased electricity rates . . . are not affordable at this time, if ever."

Sponsors of the California initiative, including Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Granite Bay), Ted Costa of the People's Advocate, a Sacramento-based anti-tax group, and Thomas Hiltachk, an attorney with Republican Party ties, have dubbed the measure the California Jobs Initiative.

The official wording of the initiative, however, lies in the hands of Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, an outspoken advocate of AB 32 and a presumptive Democratic candidate for governor. On Wednesday, his office discarded the "jobs initiative" title in favor of the unwieldy: "Suspends Air Pollution Control Laws Requiring Major Polluters to Report and Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions That Cause Global Warming Until Unemployment Drops Below Specified Level for Full Year."

Logue, an initiative sponsor, said that the money pledged to the effort is not yet in hand. At least twice as much would have to be raised to guarantee enough valid signatures. Costa, another sponsor, said there were disagreements among supporters about strategy, including how much to rely on the Internet for signature gathering.

Noting the Wall Street Journal's recent endorsement of the initiative, environmentalists worry that money from around the country will pour into the effort.

"People see California as ground zero in this fight," said Ann Nothoff, California advocacy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Polluters will do anything to defeat climate legislation in Washington, D.C., even if it means using California as a pawn."

Industries have lobbied intensely against proposed regulations. Auto manufacturers unsuccessfully sued to overturn rules to slash carbon dioxide emissions from tailpipes. Oil refiners and truckers filed suit this week against a measure to reduce the carbon content of gasoline and diesel.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has made climate change one of his signature issues, is reportedly asking major companies to remain on the sidelines. The governor "absolutely opposes" the initiative, said spokesman Aaron McLear, adding that it is "deceptively written to protect big polluters and would keep us from staying No. 1 in the country in creating clean tech jobs."

GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner has endorsed the initiative. His rival, Meg Whitman, contends that AB 32 "will discourage job creation and could kill any recovery," and vowed to impose a one-year moratorium on AB 32 on her first day as governor.

Businesses that benefit from greenhouse gas curbs are meeting with environmentalists to mobilize against the initiative. Many are connected to Silicon Valley's deep pockets.

Suspending AB 32 "would be the real job-killer," said Susan Frank of the California Business Alliance for a Green Economy. "The mere passage of AB 32 has generated green job growth even as the rest of the economy has contracted." A December study by Next 10, a San Francisco-based think tank, found that jobs in California green businesses grew 36% from 1995 to 2008, while total employment expanded only 13%.

A report on the proposed rollback of AB 32 by the state's nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office last month said that the measure could lead to greater short-term profits for some businesses, but would dampen investments in clean technology and green jobs.

The report said the initiative would invalidate a Schwarzenegger executive order requiring that a third of all retail electricity sellers get their power from renewable sources by 2020. And it would suspend the regulation to slash carbon intensity of fuels by 10%.

However, half of the state's measures to bring greenhouse gases down to 1990 levels by 2010 would survive, the analyst report concluded, notably the rules to cut tailpipe emissions, because they were enacted under different statutes.

A crowded ballot in November could work against the measure, but Costa, who was active in the successful effort to recall former Gov. Gray Davis, says his group's Internet outreach will spawn "a new coalition."

"Look at what happened in Massachusetts," he said, referring to the "tea party"-supported election of Sen. Scott Brown. "I see that happening with AB 32. Blue-collar voters think the government has gone too far. We're told we're somehow warming the planet. But they don't see the evidence."

RFID, GPS Technology and Electronic Surveillance

Watchdog: Telecoms Let FBI Read Americans' Phone Records

January 20, 2010

McClatchy Newspapers — For years, FBI agents and employees of telecom companies treated Americans' telephone records so cavalierly that one senior FBI counter-terrorism official said getting access to them was as easy as "having an ATM in your living room," according to a watchdog report made public Wednesday.

At times, telecom employees invited FBI personnel to view the phone records on their computer screens without any of the required paperwork or approvals, the Justice Department's Inspector General Glenn Fine found.

Between 2003 and 2006, one FBI unit set up to analyze telephone records issued 722 so-called "exigent letters" to three unidentified service providers.

In the letters, FBI agents attested to the urgent nature of the investigation and pledged to follow up with prosecutor-approved subpoenas later. The letters were issued without court oversight.

"We found that many FBI supervisors and employees issued or approved these exigent letters even though the letters on their face contained statements that were inaccurate, such as that a grand jury subpoena had already been submitted," the report said.

The report is the inspector general's third slamming the bureau's handling of requests for Americans' personal records.

When the inspector general's investigators asked FBI officials about the abuses "they gave a variety of unpersuasive excuses, contending either that they thought someone else had reviewed or approved the letters or that they had inherited the practice and were not in a position to change it," the report said

Describing it a "widespread failure" by FBI officials at all levels, Fine called on the FBI to determine whether bureau officials should be punished for the abuses.

"For FBI officials and employees to unquestioningly issue hundreds of these improper and inaccurate letters over a 3-and-a-half year period is both surprising and troubling," the report said.

FBI Director Robert Mueller, who didn't find out about the abuses until 2006, told senators Wednesday that the bureau had since stopped the practices and would be determining whether or not to punish employees.

The practice started soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Fine's investigators concluded that the use of the letters was an improper way to circumvent the more formal national security letters process, which requires approval from supervisors.

One FBI official told the inspector general that the unit that issued the letters was supposed to develop a "phone database on steroids" that would identify "good" versus "bad" numbers that could be useful in terrorism investigations.

To help gather this information, the bureau entered into contracts with three telecom companies. Employees from the companies worked in the bureau's offices alongside agents to analyze telephone records, which included names, addresses, length of service and billing information.

But for much of the time, there was no formal policy outlining when exigent letters could be issued.

FBI officials acknowledged that the letters weren't always issued because of emergency or life-or-death situations. In some cases, the records were connected to bomb threats, but in others they were related to non-emergency matters such as media leak investigations.

Managers also admitted that they didn't read the letters closely when they signed them and didn't know that they were expected to follow up with a subpoena.

"None of these FBI requests for telephone records — either the exigent letters or other informal requests — was accompanied by documentation explaining the authority for the requests," the report said.

In some cases, FBI agents didn't even bother with the letters and simply asked in emails or post-it notes for records related to more than 3,500 telephone numbers.

They also began an informal practice known as "sneak peeks" in which they obtained records — often on a weekly basis — from the company's database without any formal request. FBI officials estimated that they requested sneak peeks hundreds of times.

Glenn Rogers, the unit's chief at the time, told investigators that he saw no problem with the practice because it was "his understanding that there was no expectation of privacy in telephone records because the 'numbers belong to the phone companies.'"

Some numbers were later uploaded to FBI databases and used to analyze what the bureau called a "community of interest." The definition of the community of interest was redacted from the report, making it difficult to discern whose records were reviewed and what the FBI did as a result.

Since the inspector general's investigation, the FBI has concluded that records for hundreds of telephone numbers must be purged from the bureau's database because there was no national security investigation that justified obtaining them.