Free Republic

<p>WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- U.S. legislators have obtained a court order unsealing documents in a case involving a multi-million-dollar cap-and-trade fraud.</p> <p>Republican legislators say the records--due to be opened to the public in early January--could shed light on the potential challenges of policing a new, trillion-dollar commodities market that would be created under climate legislation that Congress is considering.</p>

The credibility of the European Union’s flagship carbon trading scheme was dealt another blow on Monday after carbon prices fell to six-month lows as UN talks in Copenhagen failed to deliver a strong climate deal. Traders and analysts say low prices could continue well into 2010, slowing investment in low-carbon technologies which have already been dented by tight financing due to a slow economy. “(The low price) reinforces the idea that relying solely on the EU ETS to drive investment is probably not the answer at the moment,” said Andy Kelly, head of business development at Centrica. “This does give...

WASHINGTON - Sounding a friendly tone to the nation's community bankers, President Barack Obama on Tuesday said the White House will seek to cut bureaucratic restrictions so that local lenders can help businesses seize "enormous opportunities" for growth after bleak times. "We feel very optimistic that the worst is behind us," the president declared after meeting with heads of a dozen small and community banks. The event, among the final acts of business for Obama before he leaves for a Christmas vacation in Hawaii, follows a similar meeting the president held at the White House with some of the nation's...

New Hampshire fired the first shot. Although 7 other states have similar pending resolutions and bills, Oklahoma is the first to actually pass one. Another 27 states are expected to make similar moves in the coming months. That’ll leave the country split 71-29. Now, before you get too excited, bear in mind that all of this was likely Obama’s goal. Boiled down, all of these state measures are threats of secession. Recall, if you will, Obama’s obsession to be the 21st Century Abraham Lincoln, and his ominous calls to recreate and rebuild America. Who was Lincoln? Why, he was...

Global Warming, Or A Lot of Hot Air? Aired last night (12/20/09) on FoxNews. Set in 6 parts on YouTube. For those who missed it. (I'm not sure how long they will be up.) Global Warming, Or A Lot of Hot Air? Part 1Global Warming, Or A Lot of Hot Air? Part 2Global Warming, Or A Lot of Hot Air? Part 3Global Warming, Or A Lot of Hot Air? Part 4Global Warming, Or A Lot of Hot Air? Part 5Global Warming, Or A Lot of Hot Air? Part 6

No excerpt allowed from Bloomberg.com, story here.

President Barack Hussein Obama is proceeding to destroy America and has opened up a six-front war to do so: 1. He has a Democratic controlled Congress that is willing to rubber-stamp his wildest schemes, without even reading them…as we’ve already seen. The Democratic Party is now aiding and abetting the demeaning and destruction of America and has become the voice of leftist extremism. The moderates have disappeared or been transformed, issuing only occasional squeaking and whining before following the liberal party line drawn by Mr. Obama. Where have all the Democratic moderates gone? 2. Mr. Obama has immense executive authority,...

The head of the UN's climate change panel - Dr Rajendra Pachauri - is accused of making a fortune from his links with 'carbon trading' companies, Christopher Booker and Richard North write. No one in the world exercised more influence on the events leading up to the Copenhagen conference on global warming than Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and mastermind of its latest report in 2007. Although Dr Pachauri is often presented as a scientist (he was even once described by the BBC as “the world’s top climate scientist”), as a former...

President Obama returned to the White House from the U.N. Climate Conference in Copenhagen in the wee hours of this morning, having secured a modest, non-binding, three-page deal aimed at combating global warming. After getting a wee bit of rest, Obama by early afternoon had set his sights on getting a climate bill out of the Senate that, he claims, will curb carbon emissions and, to boot, create new jobs by fostering new industries. In a statement, Obama first lauded his accomplishments in Copenhagen and then focused his attention on Capitol Hill. "For the first time in history … the...

Copenhagen has been a disaster for the free world and hardly anyone seems to have noticed. We have been distracted by the sweet schadenfreude as the event was overshadowed by the Climategate scandal at the beginning, and the Russian bombshell at the end. And by our delight in seeing the many business interests of the IPCC ’s jet-setting chairman Dr Rajendra Pachauri cruelly exposed. And by the told-you-so satisfaction of seeing it proved beyond all reasonable doubt that the “scientific” process informing the IPCC’s increasingly hysterical reports is corrupt, fraudulent and politically motivated. And by the irony of the snow...

Leadership: Alaska's ex-governor asks a question we'd like answered: Why is California's current governor pushing the same policies in Copenhagen that helped drive his state into record deficits and unemployment? The movie series that made Arnold Schwarzenegger a household name involved cyborgs traveling through time to alternately try to destroy or save one John Connor, who would grow up to be the leader of the resistance against a race of machines that ruled the planet. Prominent in the series was his tough cookie of a mom, Sarah Connor. Another Sarah has taken the lead in another resistance against another group...

(912 on the mall) The left's anti-American coup d'etat on America, made possible by the first radical Marxist in the White House, calls for distinctly American counter measures. Dr. Jack Wheeler has "a strategy for any Republican wanting to get elected or re-elected to Congress in 2010, and for any Tea Partyer wanting to take individual action now against a government that ignores the Constitution -- Defund and Disobey." Here's an excerpt of "The Double -D Strategy for rescuing America": Let's talk about the Defund D first. The Founders in their usual brilliance place the power of the purse in...

President Obama rode into office on the coattails of some horrible economic realities while promising Americans "hope and change." The nation needed both to energize new policies and to help us continue down the path to recovery, specifically in the areas of job creation and economic growth. Those who ignorantly -- and I use this word literally not pejoratively -- voted for him, have now woken up saying to themselves over and over and over again, "What the heck have I done?"

The Patriot Post · http://patriotpost.us The Time Has Come By Mark Alexander · Thursday, December 17, 2009 "It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth -- and listen to the song of that syren, till she transforms us into beasts. ... Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not?" --Patrick Henry The 2008 presidential election was much more than a referendum on the two candidates; it was a referendum on the ability...

Hey Democrats, Wake Up and Smell the Kool Aid, your voters do not buy this global warming hoax. According to Rasmussen, public skepticism regarding mankind being the cause of global warming is at an all time high. 50% of adults now believe that global warming is caused by the Earth's natural cycle, only 34% believe it is a man made phenomenon. Six percent say there is some other reason for global warming (Maybe Al Gore's Man Bear Pig?) Over the last year and a half, belief in the Church of Global Warming's Hoax has fell from 47-34% and belief that...

As 2009 comes to a close I am reminded of the pattern(s) of behavior regarding B. Hussein Obama and his goal to fundamentally change America. Maybe it has to do with Christmas looming on the horizon, Obama tinkering with the auto industry and all the layoffs that caused (my family and I thank you for that one, from the bottom of our hearts you charming Marxist) or perhaps it has to do with your using the Constitution as a place to wipe your shoes as you destroy America, or any number of things that you have done illegally, amorally, and...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is scheduled to meet privately Wednesday evening with top administration climate aide Carol Browner. Graham is working with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) to craft a bipartisan cap and trade bill. He plans to discuss the ways Senate leaders can deal with manufacturing and coal state worries that the bill will spike electricity bills in the midst of a deep recession. “We’ve got to address people’s concerns about compliance costs and rate payer increases,” he told POLITICO. He’ll also use the meaning to address nuclear power, off-shore drilling and new coal technologies —...

"...The charity was the Joyce Foundation on whose board of directors Obama served and which gave nearly $1.1 million in two separate grants that were “instrumental in developing and launching the privately-owned Chicago Climate Exchange, which now calls itself “North America’s only cap and trade system for all six greenhouse gases, with global affiliates and projects worldwide.” And that’s only the beginning of this tawdry tale, Mr. Barnes. The “privately-owned” Chicago Climate Exchange is heavily influenced by Obama cohorts Al Gore and Maurice Strong. For years now Strong and Gore have been cashing in on that lucrative cottage industry known...

Firebrand leaders Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales and Robert Mugabe turned up the heat at the UN climate talks, dumping the blame for global warming squarely at the feet of capitalism. Mr Chavez, the President of Venezuela, was one of the first world leaders to take the podium at the venue of the Copenhagen talks. He seized the occasion to characterise newly-minted Nobel Peace laureate US President Barack Obama as a warmonger. "I don't think Obama is here yet," said Mr Chavez. "He got the Nobel Peace Prize almost the same day as he sent 30,000 soldiers to kill innocent people...

THE Copenhagen climate summit was pretty much summed up in the high-level segment yesterday when Penny Wong's speech was interrupted by whistles and chanting and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez got a standing ovation. President Chavez brought the house down. When he said the process in Copenhagen was “not democratic, it is not inclusive, but isn’t that the reality of our world, the world is really and imperial dictatorship…down with imperial dictatorships” he got a rousing round of applause. When he said there was a “silent and terrible ghost in the room” and that ghost was called capitalism, the applause was...

The climate change summit in Copenhagen was in jeopardy tonight with the complex negotiations falling far behind schedule as the climate secretary, Ed Miliband, warned of a "farce". With just two days remaining, the inability to overcome disagreements about the shape of a deal to combat global warming led to hours of inaction today , while outside the negotiations police clashed with protesters who broke through a security cordon but failed in an attempt to storm the conference centre. "We have made no progress" said a source close to the talks. "What people don't realise is that we are now...

As so-called "cap-and-trade" legislation winds its way through Congress, many Americans want to know how they their country's energy future might be impacted if the legislation becomes law. Because the mainstream media isn't being too honest about the topic, they have to find alternative sources of information, including the blog you're reading now. Another good source for insight about this dangerous legislation is the Institute for Energy Research.

It is only logical that President Obama will sign any Copenhagen climate change treaty that may result from this week's negotiations. His worldview demands it. His past statements and ongoing actions presage it. Obama believes in AGW (anthropogenic or man-made global warming) theory. He believes in "economic and social justice," and that logically leads to "climate justice." He may believe that the U.S. owes a "climate debt" to the rest of the world. What better way to lead the charge than to carry the ultimate banner of the radical left -- wealth redistribution -- under the auspices of the "crises...

COPENHAGEN (AFP) – UN chief Ban Ki-moon said world leaders faced a "defining moment in history" as they balanced their nation's interests with a global clamour to halt the juggernaut of climate change. With just over three days left to broker one of the most ambitious, yet also fiendishly complex, deals in human history, conference chair Denmark appealed for all sides to embrace the spirit of compromise. But China and the United States -- the world's two biggest carbon polluters -- brushed aside European calls for concessions on emissions reductions, the thorniest issue of all. Related article: UN system to...

On July 9, 1970, President Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by executive order as an independent agency joining together a number of functions from different federal agencies. The EPA says its mission “is to protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment – air, water and land – upon which life depends.” An Administrator appointed by the President of the United States runs the agency, which is not a Cabinet agency, although the Administrator is usually given cabinet rank. Lisa P. Jackson is the current Administrator, and the EPA’s Website notes that the “FY 2010 Budget...

Global Warming: The Alaskan governor who knew polar bears weren't endangered says the planet isn't either and challenges the oracle of climate change. Al Gore says despite the CRU e-mails, the situation is of the utmost gravity. In a Dec. 9 Washington Post op-ed, Sarah Palin noted that the Climate-gate e-mails from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia "reveal that leading climate 'experts' deliberately destroyed records, manipulated data to 'hide the decline' in global temperatures and tried to silence their critics from publishing in peer-reviewed journals." This did not sit well with Gore. "The entire North...

Black activist to Obama: Promote job growth by killing cap-and-trade As a candidate, Obama admitted that, under such a plan, "electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket"   Monday, December 14, 2009 If the White House jobs summit is more than a publicity stunt, says Deneen Borelli of the Project 21 black leadership network, Obama should abandon efforts to implement a cap-and-trade policy, as it would kill jobs. "If Obama is sincere about finding ways to fix our country's employment crisis, he should start by putting the brakes on job-killing cap-and-trade legislation," said Deneen Borelli, a Project 21 fellow. Obama is...

Forget the dire economic consequences of a Copenhagen climate change treaty for a second and think about the fraud involved. Carbon Trading Fraud Take the European Union, for instance, which implemented a carbon trading scheme analogous to a cap and trade system. And it has been fraught with fraud. French officials are investigating a $230 million carbon trading fraud scheme and this is only the tip of the iceberg in what is a startling revelation and huge blow to the climate talks in Copenhagen: Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement arm against organized crime, announced on Wednesday that carbon-trading fraud...

COPENHAGEN – As police cracked down on climate protesters, church bells tolled 350 times Sunday to impress on the U.N. global warming conference a number that is gaining a following, but is also awash in contradictions. Conference negotiators, meanwhile, went behind closed doors in talks to pin down an elusive new pact on climate, talks in which the figure 350 looms as a goal for true believers, but one that appears impossible based on progress so far. It refers to 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the highest concentration that some leading scientists say the world...

The Republican Party, the Party of Reagan has been nearly smothered and suffocated by the RINO-virus which has spread more rapidly than any swine flu pandemic, the GOP has been infected from the top down, and IF it is to avoid the fate of the Bull Moose Party, the principles of Reagan conservatism must be re-established, the fair weather collaborators and Quislings (that means YOU Juan McCain and your butt buddy Lindsey 'Goober' Graham!) MUST be driven out and banished and if they join up with the traitorous 'Rats, so be it. Force them to show their true colors. The...

Europe's cap-and-trade program which is designed to reduce CO2 emissions is rife with fraud thanks to organized crime's alleged involvement in the market as reported by the European Police Office (EUROPOL): The European Union (EU) Emission Trading System (ETS) has been the victim of fraudulent traders in the past 18 months. This resulted in losses of approximately 5 billion euros for several national tax revenues. It is estimated that in some countries, up to 90% of the whole market volume was caused by fraudulent activities. In France prosecutors have "opened a criminal investigation of four men allegedly involved in a...

While our media sleep, the United Nations is proceeding, with President Obama's acquiescence, to implement a global plan to create a new international socialist order financed by global taxes on the American people.The Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development that begins on Wednesday will consider adoption of a document calling for "new voluntary and innovative sources of financing initiatives to provide additional stable sources of development finance..." This is U.N.-speak for global taxes. They are anything but "voluntary" for the people forced to pay them.The most "popular" proposals, which could generate tens of...

The Obama Administration plans to bypass Congress to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. According to Fox News, a top White House economic official warned Tuesday the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will not wait for Congress to pass legislation on climate change. The official said that if Congress does not take action, "the EPA is going to have to regulate in this area. And it is not going to be able to regulate in a market-based way, so it's going to have to regulate in a command-and-control way." He explained that legislation would provide compensation for small businesses hit hard by new...

Is Rep. Michele Bachmann a “lovable little fuzzball”? Those of us who know her on a more personal basis know that’s a pretty good description of Michele personally, but politically,she’s about as tough as they get. Breitbart TV’s B-cast interviews Bachmann, who brings listeners up to date on Barney Frank’s financial-reform legislation, which dropped on the House last week. It’s 1300 pages long, and the vote will be taken — today. It reorders the entire financial-services industry and vastly increases government control over it. Oh, and ACORN, too. Frank bypassed the committee process, according to Bachmann, and she doesn’t see...

COPENHAGEN — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar joined the Obama administration’s charm offensive in Copenhagen on Thursday — and took some shots at the Bush administration in the process. “As much as the world awoke to the dangers of climate change, the political leadership of the United States simply slept,” Salazar said in a briefing at the U.S. center here. “Confronting the impact of climate change was simply not a priority.” He said things have changed since the election of Barack Obama. “I’m here in today in Copenhagen on behalf of President Obama to deliver a simple message: The United States...

Seventy-one percent (71%) of voters nationwide say they’re at least somewhat angry about the current policies of the federal government. That figure includes 46% who are Very Angry. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 27% are not angry about the government's policies, including 10% who are Not at All Angry........ The data suggests that the level of anger is growing. The 71% who are angry at federal government policies today is up five percentage points since September. Even more stunning, the 46% who are Very Angry is up 10 percentage points from September.

The EPA’s finding that carbon dioxide is a dangerous pollutant explains why the administration wasn’t too concerned over possible failure at Copenhagen. This was their Plan B. The finding is an environmental Sword of Damocles held over the head of the U.S. with a warning that if cap-and-trade legislation such as Waxman-Markey or Kerry-Boxer is not signed into law, the full regulatory fury of an unelected bureaucracy will be unleashed on the American people and the U.S. economy.

Home foreclosure filings in New York rose nearly 70 percent in November compared to the same month a year ago, a much steeper increase than what happened nationally. The number of foreclosure filings in the U.S. rose 18 percent in November on a year-over-year basis, according to RealtyTrac, an online real estate company based in California. Even with the big jump in New York, the state continues to rank toward the bottom in terms of per-capita foreclosures in the United States. New York was 39th on the list. And, compared with the previous month, foreclosures are down 8 percent in...

<p>A surprising thing is taking place as Sarah Palin starts speaking out on the issues in recent speeches, internet postings, and in the book tour she is now undertaking for her memoir “Going Rogue.” An outline is starting to appear in respect of the substance of her world view — call it “Palinism” — and it is far more substantive than her detractors suggest or than we gained a glimpse of during the campaign. She has been, in a straightforward way, stepping up on certain issues that her fellow Republicans would do well to emulate.</p>

Eastman nixes plans for Beaumont plant KINGSPORT, Tenn., – Eastman Chemical Company announced Thursday that it has decided to discontinue its Beaumont industrial gasification project. According to a press release issued by the company, this decision was made due to a number of factors, including high capital costs, the current and foreseen reduced spread between natural gas and oil and petroleum coke prices, and continued uncertainty regarding U.S. energy and environmental public policy.

Junk Science: The Environmental Protection Agency's sneak attack on the U.S. economy and our freedoms, curiously timed for the opening day of the Copenhagen climate charade, won't go unchallenged. Nor should it. (snip) EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, in a conversation with Sen. James Inhofe, ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has in effect admitted the finding was based on the junk science and data manipulation practiced at Britain's East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU). "She told me that EPA accepted those findings without any serious independent analysis to see whether they were true," Inhofe said. Dr....

The deliberate setup for the White House power grab is built into the each of the health care bills and, if they fail, little-known twin bills called “MedPAC Reform of 2009” are waiting in the wings. The bills, S.B. 1110 and H.R. 2718, craftily amend the Social Security Act and transfer the Medicare guideline and rule setting processes, from the legislative branch to the executive branch. These bills offer cover to one another in case one doesn’t pass the House or Senate, respectively. Remember, Democrats need to gain executive branch authority by amending the Social Security Act over Medicare regulations...

With the publication of damaging e-mails from a climate research center in Britain, the radical environmental movement appears to face a tipping point. The revelation of appalling actions by so-called climate change experts allows the American public to finally understand the concerns so many of us have articulated on this issue. “Climate-gate,” as the e-mails and other documents from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia have become known, exposes a highly politicized scientific circle -- the same circle whose work underlies efforts at the Copenhagen climate change conference. The agenda-driven policies being pushed in Copenhagen won’t...

Obama is so transparent, petty and small, he is an embarrassment. O's latest Chicago way payback? He has nominated Larry Persily, who writes hit pieces on Palin for the Puff Ho, got that? Obama defines the hatred of the good for being the good. You go Sarah. W'vee got your back. Obama nominates former Palin aide to pipeline job [note lefturd Reuters headline -- as if he was part of her camp /not] WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama nominated Larry Persily, a former aide to ex-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, on Wednesday to be federal coordinator for Alaska Natural Gas...

With the publication of damaging e-mails from a climate research center in Britain, the radical environmental movement appears to face a tipping point. The revelation of appalling actions by so-called climate change experts allows the American public to finally understand the concerns so many of us have articulated on this issue. "Climate-gate," as the e-mails and other documents from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia have become known, exposes a highly politicized scientific circle -- the same circle whose work underlies efforts at the Copenhagen climate change conference. The agenda-driven policies being pushed in Copenhagen won't...

Right Side News reports from both The Hill and the Senator's EPW blog, and you decide....insightful understanding of how the American people are being deceived.....Senator Inhofe sites EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson for her baseless directives. ========== Climate change skeptics have won the battle against cap and trade legislation, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) declared today.Debating Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), House co-sponsor of climate legislation, on CNN's Situation Room, Inhofe argued the Climate Gate emails show that global warming science is false.

At the Copenhagen climate summit, the world’s top environment watchdog welcomed the fact President Obama will now be attending the talks but said the US target of cutting carbon emissions by 17 per cent by 2020 on 2005 levels was not high enough. "To make up for this, he said the Americans must invest in a global fund to help developing countries cut their emissions. “The litmus test is show me the money,” he said. “If you are going to come to Copenhagen and you are not able to deliver emissions targets at the moment along the lines the other...

Carbon dioxide is poison. That’s what the EPA says. The public health is at risk. Carbon dioxide is poison and an “endangerment” edict has been issued and the government is going to run your life. Even more than it does already. In one more Obama lurch toward totalitarianism, the administration announced yesterday that the Environmental Protection Agency has determined that carbon dioxide is a threat to clean air and that it, the EPA, claims the authority to impose binding rules across the society and economy to cut American production of CO2. That’s right, the same CO2 you exhale something like...

Across Uganda, thousands of women warm supper over new, $8 orange-painted stoves. The clay-and-metal pots burn about two-thirds the charcoal of the open-fire cooking typical of East Africa, where forests are being chopped down in the struggle to feed the region’s 125 million people. Four thousand miles away, at the Charles Hurst Land Rover dealership in southwest London, a Range Rover Vogue sells for £90,000 pounds. A blue windshield sticker proclaims that the gasoline-powered truck’s first 45,000 miles (72,421 km) will be carbon neutral. That’s because Land Rover, official purveyor of 4x4s to Queen Elizabeth II, is helping Ugandans cut...