A concise view of who these folks are...communists, takers and not very charitable to the less fortunate.

OWS camp gets really commie-cal

By JOSH SAUL, MARISOL RODRIGUEZ and BOB FREDERICKS

Some 50 Occupy Wall Street protesters saw red yesterday -- giving an enthusiastic welcome to a genuine communist.

Alex Callinicos, a professor of European Studies at Kings College in London, announced to his rapt audience, “I am a Marxist.’’

Asked if the upcoming revolution can be non-violent, he parroted the party line of the demonstrators, who call themselves the 99 percent of Americans lined up against the “1 percent’’ with power and money.

He said violence could be avoided only if the “1 percent accept the decisions of the 99 percent,’’ which he predicted would never happen.

While he was speaking about the revolution, most of the demonstrators in Zuccotti Park were making plans for a long, cold winter.

“It’s been dumping snow here in NYC ... high winds and 3 inches of slush on the ground ... [and] those occupying Liberty Plaza [Zuccotti’s former name] ... are in need of emergency supplies crucial for cold-weather survival,” organizers said on their Web site.

Their elaborate wish list included “insulated gloves, wool hats, scarves, long underwear/smart wool thermal socks, all-weather sub-thermal sleeping bags [and] all-weather tents.”

And sympathetic supporters were quick to deliver.

“I was feeling really bad for them yesterday,” said Beth Kelley, 47, an ex-Wall Street worker who brought fleece hats and scarves.

But not everyone felt sorry for the soggy masses.

Nick Hommen, 29, a volunteer from Salem, Ore., who was handling donations, said some demonstrators were taking advantage of people’s generosity.

“We can’t afford to keep buying new tents. It’s ridiculous the sense of entitlement people feel,” Hommen said.

And he distinguished between actual protesters and the growing number of homeless people invading the park, a rift first reported last week by The Post when kitchen workers revolted over working 18-hour days to feed “professional homeless” people.

“We can’t continue to be a homeless shelter,” Hommen said.

Even Triumph the Insult Comic Dog from Conan O’Brien’s TV show, which was taping at the park, told protesters, “There are too many causes; you need to simplify,” while chiding them for demanding free subway rides for the jobless and “meditation subsidies.”

Read more:http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/ows_camp_gets_really_commie_cal_77d2HZTSJ9EDLk01OKOjVM#ixzz1cNpqd0EU

Strange logic

Fiend attacks 'Occupy' protester in her tent

Isn't it intriguing that these people don't want the government to intervene in their lives, the police is government, yet they want to government to intervene on their behalf by taking money from you to give to them. Very curious logic.

Doing for himself what he did for New Jersey.

Corzine’s MF Global files for bankruptcy

By MARK DeCAMBRE

Besieged broker MF Global filed bankruptcy today after a frantic effort over the weekend by CEO John Corzine to strike an out-of-bankruptcy sale came up short.

MF Global had a tentative deal to sell assets to Interactive Brokers Group as of late Sunday, but the agreement fell apart as talks continued overnight, people familiar with the matter said. Discussions ended around 5 a.m. Eastern Time, one of these people said.

MF Global had been considering filing just its holding company for bankruptcy protection and then executing the sale. That plan is now off the table, one of the people said. This person said MF Global's parent company would be included in the bankruptcy filing.

Voluntary bankruptcy petitions for MF Global Holdings Ltd. and MF Global Finance USA Inc. hit the docket in a US bankruptcy court in Manhattan mid-morning Monday.

The New York Federal Reserve said that it suspended new business with the futures trading company until it establishes that it is "fully capable" of performing its duties as a primary broker. It is one of 22 primary brokers at the New York Fed.

Additionally, the InterContinental Exchange limited MF Global customers to unwinding positions and said it will no longer recognize the company or its divisions as a guarantor. MF Global is a major player in the futures markets, so the news had an outsized effect on futures trading.

In its bankruptcy filing with the Federal Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, it listed JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank as its biggest creditors.

The company reported a quarterly loss of $192 million last week and has seen its shares plunge more than 60 percent since then.

The bankruptcy ended one of the most harrowing weekends on Wall Street since Lehman Brothers on Sept. 15, 2008 imploded on worries that it was choking on toxic mortgage debt.

Three years later, Corzine — a former Goldman Sachs CEO — was pounding the phones this past weekend in an attempt to secure a white knight to purchase all or parts of MF Global after concerns about the broker-dealer’s exposures to some $6.3 billion in European sovereign debt decimated its shares in a wild week off trader for the firm that saw it lose three-quarters of its equity value.

For Corzine, 64, the bankruptcy is another knock on his reputation after choosing to dial up European risk at MF Global when other larger firms had grown weary.

Corzine is not expected to stay on at MF Global — an embarrassing outcome for a Wall Street titan who led Goldman Sachs before being ousted in 1999.

Corzine had hoped to strike a deal with a number of firms, including Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs, Australian financial institution Macquarie Group and others, to purchase all or parts of the firm, sources noted.

However, few of the firms appeared willing to embrace fresh risk given the markets jitteriness around Europe and regulators weren't keen either, sources say.

Even during the firm’s hectic weekend shotgun deal making, Corzine held out that his bets on Europe only needed time to bear fruit and believes that the market worries around the broker dealers is overblown.

The heat on Corzine’s firm came to a head after the firm reported a record loss on Sept. 26 followed by a series of downgrades from major rating agencies Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch took its debt down to junk-bond levels the following day.

If taxes are now called investments what should these government investments be called?

Second Energy Department-backed company goes bankrupt

By Ben Geman

A Massachusetts company that received a $43 million Energy Department loan guarantee last year filed for bankruptcy Sunday, a step certain to fuel criticism of federal green energy financing in the wake of the solar company Solyndra’s collapse.

Beacon Power Corp., which develops energy storage systems, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

Beacon Power had received federal loan guarantee to help build an energy storage plant in Stephentown, New York that began operating in January. The Treasury Department’s Federal Financing Bank provided the loan.

Beacon sought bankruptcy protection two days after the White House ordered an independent 60-day evaluation of the Energy Department's loan programs aimed at ensuring effective management and monitoring.

The review, conducted by a former Treasury Department official, will include examination of how Beacon’s project is performing going forward, and whether there are additional steps that can be taken to protect taxpayers, according to the Obama administration.

The Beacon bankruptcy comes roughly two months after the California solar panel maker Solyndra, which had received a $535 million Energy Department (DOE) loan guarantee in 2009, went belly up and laid off 1,100 workers.

Solyndra’s collapse unleashed a torrent of GOP-led attacks on the Energy Department’s loan guarantee program.

Solyndra and the broader loan guarantee program are under investigation in the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

“This latest failure is a sharp reminder that DOE has fallen well short of delivering the stimulus jobs that were promised, and now taxpayers find themselves millions of more dollars in the hole,” said Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the GOP’s point man on the Solyndra investigation and a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, in a statement to The Hill and other outlets.

“Unfortunately for the American taxpayers, I am deeply concerned that other DOE programs could follow which goes to the heart of the President's flawed economic program,” he said.

Stearns is chairman of the energy panel’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, which is expected to vote Thursday to subpoena internal White House communications about Solyndra.

Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera said there are “many protections for the taxpayer” in the agreement with Beacon Power.

“The Department’s loan guarantee is for the project Stephentown Regulation Services, LLC, not the parent company, and the loan was set up in a way that ensures the Department is not directly exposed to the liabilities of the parent company,” he said in an email Monday.

The department also sought to contrast the Beacon Power project and Solyndra, noting that Solyndra stopped manufacturing operations when it went bankrupt, while Beacon Power intends to continue operating the New York energy storage plant.

“It is important to note that this plant itself, which is operational and generating revenue, is a valuable collateral asset. In addition, under the terms of our loan guarantee agreement, Stephentown Regulation Services, LLC currently has cash reserves and proceeds from the plant that it was required to hold as collateral on the loan,” LaVera said.

The Energy Department also noted that the federal government retains its “senior status” for repayment in the loan agreement with Beacon Power.

In contrast, the Solyndra loan guarantee was restructured in early 2011 to put private investors – who had agreed to provide another $75 million to the struggling company – first in line for repayment if the company liquidated.

Beacon drew $39 million of the guaranteed loan to help finance the plant.

Beacon’s bankruptcy filing lists assets of $72 million and debt of $47 million, according to Bloomberg.

“The current economic and political climate, the financing terms mandated by DOE, and Beacon’s recent delisting notice from Nasdaq have together severely restricted Beacon’s access to additional investments through the equity markets,” CEO F. William Capp said in the bankruptcy filing, according to the financial news service.

The Energy Department has lauded Beacon’s flywheel energy storage technology as a way to improve power grid stability and help bring renewable power sources into the system.

“We will continue to support the development and deployment of innovative energy systems like this energy storage project that support our goal of expanding renewable energy generation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said when announcing the finalization of the agreement in August of 2010.

The loan guarantee program was first authorized in a 2005 energy bill crafted under GOP control of Congress and signed into law by then-President Bush, and expanded under President Obama’s stimulus law.

The program was slow to get off the ground, and first loan guarantees were not issued until the Obama administration took power.

Ramping up the class warfare memne

CURL: The very angry first lady Michelle Obama

The 1%

Want to know what the Jewish Nazi collaborator looked like he's a self loathing Jew as an example.

Sarah Silverman on dismissive Rick Perry coverage: ‘I miss the Jew-run banks and media’

Sometimes when Hollywood celebrities attempt to pontificate on politics, especially on live television, it doesn’t end well. So one has to wonder what the bookers for MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” were thinking booking comedienne Sarah Silverman, particularly on a Friday night.

Nonetheless, Silverman took to the airwaves on Maddow’s show last night to promote her comedy tour “Live from Niggerhead” comedy tour, which according to Silverman has its proceeds going to the NAACP.

Maddow began by asking Silverman if her comedy initiative was an effort to revitalize the controversy of an ill-advised name of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s family’s hunting camp and draw more attention to it.

“I think that any time racism shows itself in a tangible way, it’s not just a gas in the air, it’s important to take the opportunity to point at it,” Silverman said. “You know? I think it’s dangerous when it just kind of goes away and, you know, here’s a guy who is a governor and running for president and it has not injured him in any way really.”

And why has the controversy been allowed to die? Silverman had her own theory.

“I partially blame the media actually,” Silverman said. “I mean, Rachel, I am not – I have no religion, but am I crazy – I miss – I kind of miss – I miss the Jew-run banks and media. I think that wouldn’t have been let go so fast.”

Maddow also asked if the fact that former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain was leading the polls somehow negated the racism she perceived in the modern Republican Party. Silverman said no, but address the web ad featuring Cain’s campaign manager smoking in it.

“No, not really – I think that – I’ll tell you why he’s ahead,” Silverman said. “You know how they say, like, when terrible, horribly made commercials are on the air, like, you know, apply directly to the head, or all that stuff, they always say, hey, you’re talking about it. And I think that’s what attributes to his success. Those commercials are crazy, right?”

video: http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/29/sarah-silverman-on-dismissive-rick-perry-coverage-i-miss-the-jew-run-banks-and-media/#ixzz1cFKsL2g8

Yes, there were Jews who fought for the Nazi's even after the persecution began. They thought of themselves as true Germans and since they were not practicing Jews, you know the kind that immediately says I have no religion, like this woman, they would be safe. They in the end were not. But, they were callous to the suffering of the Jews that war slaughtered around them. They are the most despicable of people and should be treated accordingly. Hollywood is full of self loathing Jews from Woody Allen to Larry David. People who have made a living off of denigrating Jews and Jewish history. This woman is also serving as a warning to Jews that anti Semitism is becoming more acceptable in polite society. The Left and the Islamists will bond in their hatred of the Jew. Ask why has their been so little made of David Duke's endorsement of Occupy Wall Street. Or of Iran's support.

Self loathing and self destructive liberalism

Blair defends opening the door to mass migration and says it had a very positive impact on Britain

• Former PM said it was 'right’ that the country was made up of different cultures and faiths mixing together

Tony Blair has defended Labour’s controversial mass immigration policy by claiming that Britain cannot succeed unless it opens its borders to more people from different backgrounds.

The former prime minister said it was 'right’ that the country was made up of different cultures and faiths mixing together.

Mr Blair added that migrants had made Britain 'stronger’ and said those calling for greater curbs on foreigners entering the country were wrong.

His comments come just days after official figures revealed that the population is expected to soar by the equivalent of a city the size of Leeds every year for the next decade.

A defiant Mr Blair insisted his party’s policy on immigration was the right one. He said: 'It’s been a very positive thing and there is no way for a country like Britain to succeed in the future unless it is open to people of different colours, faiths and cultures.’

Under Labour, up to 5.5million people born outside the UK arrived as long-term migrants.

Between 1997 and 2010, around 2.3million left the country, meaning the UK population increased by around 3.2million as a direct result of foreign migrants.

In an interview with Eastern Eye newspaper, Mr Blair said: 'The vision of a country of different cultures and different faiths mixing together is the right one.

'That is not to say you don’t have problems at certain points, but those problems are to be overcome without losing the essence of what has actually allowed this country’s people to get on and do well.’

Defiant: Mr Blair's comments about mass migration were branded shameless by critics

His comments were branded ‘shameless’ by critics and are set to fuel claims that the huge increase in migrants under Labour were due to a politically motivated attempt by ministers to change the country.

Two years ago, Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, said that Labour’ s relaxation of controls was a deliberate plan to ‘open the UK to mass migration’.

He added that Labour wanted to rub the ‘Right’s nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date’.

Deliberate: Two years ago, Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, said that Labour' s relaxation of controls wanted to 'open the UK to mass migration'

Mr Blair added that the anti-immigration debate was one of the ‘past’. ‘I think the majority of people in Britain today are not prejudiced and can understand the benefits of migration.

‘I think what people worry about is where they feel there is no control over who comes in and there are no rules governing who comes in or not, and that is a different issue altogether.

‘It would be very unfortunate if by putting those rules into place, we view that immigration was a somehow bad thing for the country, because it is not.’

Tory MP Priti Patel, said: ‘As the daughter of immigrants, there is no question that those who work hard and make a positive contribution do enrich the fabric of our society.

‘But what Tony Blair has failed to recognise is that while he was in power, he opened the floodgates of mass and uncontrolled immigration which has left a damaging legacy in our towns and cities.’

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, said: ‘This is completely shameless from the Prime Minister who brought more than three million immigrants into Britain in the teeth of public opposition.’

Fellow Tory MP Dominic Raab added: ‘These comments are naïve if not reckless. Tony Blair has left Britain with a legacy of uncontrolled immigration that has put huge pressure on public services and undermined community cohesion’.

The British elite bent on destroyed Britain as a culture.

When government picks losers including decades of voting Democrat

How Harrisburg Borrowed Itself Into Bankruptcy

Can the capital of Pennsylvania stiff creditors when a credible payment plan is available?

By STEVEN MALANGA

During an April 2009 debate among candidates vying to be mayor of Harrisburg, Pa., one aspirant suggested that the financially troubled city should sell some of its valuable historical artifacts and use the proceeds to finance a "Harrisburg Museum of Bad Ideas." One compelling exhibit would be the city's recent decision to file for bankruptcy protection.

Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, is drowning in debt. City officials have known for more than four years that they'd have to deal with the fiscal mess, but they punted. The state has engineered a bailout plan, but the city council rejected it. Instead it has asked creditors to forgo as much as $100 million of the debt. Essentially, the city council is engaged in a giant game of brinksmanship with the state and creditors, daring them to come up with something that's less onerous than the current state plan, which involves asset sales and renegotiating union contracts.

"There's no way [state] legislators are going to sit up there and let the capital city of this state go under. They would be the laughingstock of the country," council member Gloria Martin-Roberts said earlier this year.

Under seven-term Mayor Stephen Reed, who governed from 1982 to 2010, Harrisburg had a long love affair with borrowed money, using it to spur projects of dubious value. The city invested millions of dollars in a stadium in the late 1980s to attract a minor league baseball team. When the Harrisburg Senators threatened to leave in 1995, the city bought the team with borrowed money. In 2009, even as the fiscal clouds darkened, it sank another $45 million, including $18 million in new debt, into upgrading the stadium. The team was attracting 2,488 fans per game.

Then there are those historical artifacts. Mr. Reed, once described by a local newspaper as a man who "never met a municipal bond he didn't like," wanted to borrow to open a network of museums. He spent some $39 million on a National Civil War Museum that opened in 2001. It has struggled for years to attract crowds. Undeterred, the mayor borrowed some $8 million to buy artifacts—including a Gatling gun, a Wells Fargo coach and a document signed by Wyatt Earp—for a proposed Wild West museum, though most of the purchases were made without the knowledge and consent of the city council. Plans for a Wild West museum and a National Sports Hall of Fame, financed by a $30 million bond offering, mercifully fell through.

Associated Press

The city even borrowed money to buy a money-losing minor league baseball team.

The Harrisburg Authority, a city agency controlled by the mayor, floated much of the city's debt, including millions on an ill-fated incinerator. Built in the 1970s, it has been plagued by breakdowns and operating losses. Many other municipal governments, including nearby Lancaster County's, have turned their incinerators over to private-sector operators. The Harrisburg Authority spent the 1990s investing millions in a fruitless effort to make the plant efficient and profitable. But default loomed by 2003—when the city was forced to close the incinerator, now saddled with $100 million in debt, because it did not comply with federal clean-air standards.

Next up? A massive retrofit engineered by Barlow Projects Inc., a firm from Fort Collins, Colo. Harrisburg and Dauphin County, where the city is located, agreed to guarantee $125 million in new borrowing that was supposed to be paid back by revenues from the reopened plant. The city's debt load grew to $441 million, about $9,000 per resident.

The project fell behind and Barlow filed for bankruptcy in 2007 after the city fired it before work on the plant was completed. Harrisburg has missed payments on the incinerator debt, and it avoided default on its general obligation bonds in September 2010 only because the state stepped in with aid.

A worried state government enlisted a financial consultant to come up with a bailout plan. Unveiled in June, it involves selling the rights to the city's parking garage revenues to raise money, privatizing commercial sanitation services to cut costs, gaining concessions from city workers on pay and benefits, and raising taxes.

The city council rejected the state plan in July. Mayor Linda Thompson proposed a similar plan. It was voted down in August. Earlier this month the city council essentially threw Harrisburg on the mercy of the federal bankruptcy court, where members hope for a better deal.

The state has already challenged the bankruptcy petition. Gov. Tom Corbett, calling the Chapter 9 filing "illegal," is preparing to take over management of the city. But the city council remains defiant. Its attorney, Mark Schwartz, said that Mr. Corbett "can declare it Flag Day or Pay Investment Banks Day, it doesn't matter. He has to justify [a takeover] before the bankruptcy court."

Harrisburg's creditors, including municipal bond insurer Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp., have also sued the city. The municipal finance industry will be watching what happens with keen interest—because Assured Guaranty had received city and county debt guarantees. The county has lived up to its agreement and made payments to bondholders, but Harrisburg has not.

The Harrisburg case raises fundamental questions about the way cities and states increasingly use debt to finance speculative development that private investors or lenders won't touch. From minor league stadiums to arenas, museums, downtown redevelopment and waste plants with unproven technologies, billions have been spent on schemes of questionable value. Some projects are backed by unrealistic economic projections, which leave taxpayers on the hook for bond payments or operating subsidies. These deals are one reason why state and local debt outstanding has ballooned from $1.3 trillion to $2.5 trillion in the last decade, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Perhaps the country does need a national museum of bad government ideas. Harrisburg would be a good place for it.

Freak'in eight year olds

Occupy DC to secede from the United States? [VIDEO]

The Daily Caller visited the Occupy DC encampment on Friday and interviewed union organizer Anthony Sluder. While Sluder appeared to be in charge, he preferred to describe himself as “the one who is informed to inform you.”

Check out what Sluder told TheDC about the “occupiers” and their plan to — you heard it right — secede.

video: http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/29/occupy-dc-to-secede-from-the-united-states/#ixzz1cF9rzVFF

Obama

Obama clarified what liberalism is

October 29, 2011 by Don Surber

AS president, Barack Obama has shown liberalism’s true colors. I thank him for that. Let us begin with campaign finance reform. Oh, this happened before he was president, or to be more exact, while he was running for president. Obama accepted a whopping $750 million in campaign contributions — a half billion of the money coming from large donors, including the two richest men in America. That was double the money Republican John McCain collected.

If liberals had any qualms about big money influencing the election, they remained silent. The dogs that did not bark were all those self-appointed campaign reformers. Forgotten were their complaints when George Walker Bush raised $100 million to self-finance his primary races. Once Obama was safe and president, the campaign finance complainers were back in action.

Oh, how they hate the fact that corporations can now criticize politicians outright in TV ads. It is particularly entertaining to read those New York Times editorials that decry corporations being involved in politics. Isn’t the New York Times part of a corporation?

Then there is fiscal responsibility. On the campaign trail, then-Sen. Obama complained about profligate spending. “The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents — No. 43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child,” Obama said.

“That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.”

On Obama’s watch, the national debt will have increased by another “unpatriotic” $4 trillion in just three years.

Throughout the Bush presidency, liberals loved to quote socialist Howard Zinn’s line, “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism,” often misattributed to Thomas Jefferson. However, when people protested against Obamacare in the summer of 2009, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called their protests “un-American” in a column in USA Today. Two years later, Pelosi is back to backing protest in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

I guess dissent is patriotic only when the target is a Republican administration or a private company.

Then there is war. President Bush got congressional approval and a resolution from the United Nations before sending troops to Iraq. Liberals later described this as illegal and unconstitutional. Likewise, in 1986, liberals opposed President Reagan’s decision to bomb Libya in retaliation for terrorist acts that were sanction by Muammar Gadhafi. Innocents would die, was the fear. Lo and behold, 25 years later, President Obama shelled Libya without congressional approval or even a U.N. resolution.

While certainly I agree that getting rid of Gadhafi was worth the billion or so it cost, the Libyan mission clarified liberal views on war once and for all. Indeed, like neo-cons, liberals now want to remove any and all dictators. Suddenly, it is cool to be the world’s policeman. All right!

What is particularly amusing to me is how all these previously held political positions were couched in morality. It was immoral to collect money from large donors until Obama did it. It was immoral to borrow $4 trillion until Obama did it. It was immoral to bomb the hell out of a tiny country just to remove a dictator until Obama did it.

Thank you, President Obama, for clarifying just how principled liberals are these days.

Rightly so. Frivolities must go in difficult times

Is sun to set on solar power? Leaked document reveals government is planning 50% cuts to subsidies

• Energy Savings Trust 'accidentally' publish report
  
• Cuts could cost 25,000 jobs

By Daniel Miller

Homeowners who fitted solar panels will soon be left out of pocket according to a leaked document which reveals the government is planning to slash the amount of money it pays for generating renewable energy.

In an embarrassing slip-up, the Energy Savings Trust charity accidentally published confidential details of proposals to cut renewable energy payments by more than 50 per cent.

It would mean the amount the average household receives for generating solar energy would fall from £1,190 to £640.

Cuts: Homeowners with solar roof panels will see the amount of money they are paid by the government slashed by 50 per cent according to a leaked document

Government energy ministers are expected to announce the cuts in Parliament on Monday.

Earlier week Climate Change minister Greg Barker said he believed that tariffs paid by government needed to reflect the falling cost of solar technology.

Climate change minister Greg barker said tariffs need to reflect the falling cost of solar technology

According to the leaked document the new tariffs could be brought in as early as December 8 and would see payments fall from the current 43.3p per kilowatt hour to just 21p for surplus electricity fed back into the national grid.

The Energy Savings Trust quickly withdrew the document but not before the news had spread causing widespread concern amongst homeowners and companies which install solar panels.

A spokesman for the charity said: 'We’ve been working on a draft consumer guidance document in relation to the Fast Track Review of Feed in Tariffs for Solar PV to pre-empt the Government consultation which is expected next week.

'Preparing advice on a potential announcement was the responsible thing to do as the leading consumer advice body in this area. Unfortunately, due to a technical error this document was made available for search.'

Industry experts believe that if the new tariffs are introduced it could put dozens of firms out of business and cost as many as 25,000 jobs.

They also point out it will effectively discourage people from adopting solar and other renewable energy technologies.

Homeowners with cash to spare can pay for solar equipment themselves and receive up to £1,000 a year from the government subsidy and electricity savings.

Those unable to cover the cost of the equipment upfront can sign up with solar technology firms and effectively rent out their rooftops so the companies pay for the panels and the benefits are split.

Solar businesses are now calling on energy ministers to reconsider Monday's scheduled announcement, in which they are expected to confirm the leak.

Slip up: The document was leaked after a 'technical error' on the Energy Savings Trust website

Shaun Taylor, managing director of Buckinghamshire-based SolarTech, posted on the ClickGreen website: 'If this leak proves accurate then the Government will be condemning tens of thousands of residents in social housing to continued fuel poverty as there is no way that 'free PV' schemes will now be financially viable.

'The impact on employment will also be enormous as the industry had forecast 20,000 to 30,000 jobs would be created in this sector.

'If the Government's plan was to add to unemployment, close businesses, leave thousands in fuel poverty and miss our European Carbon Reduction Targets then job done! Let’s hope that this leak doesn’t turn out to be accurate and drown the industry.'

This morning ClickGreen launched a 'Save-Our-Solar' campaign in response to the leak and received over 500 messages of support in the first two hours.

The left loves thugs

Tea Party wants same treatment as Occupy Atlanta

Local Tea Party organizers are threatening to sue the city of Atlanta, saying Mayor Kasim Reed has given special treatment to Occupy Atlanta protesters.

Atlanta Tea Party co-founder Julianne Thompson told Channel 2 Action News that the group, which supports limited taxes and reduced government deficits, has made a request in writing after being denied permission to hold an event downtown because city officials said there was too much red tape and cost involved.

"I think it's very sad that in the city of Atlanta, we seem to have a mayor who picks and chooses who receives special rights regarding free speech -- based on his political ideology," Thompson told Channel 2.

Debbie Dooley, national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, told the AJC that the group had inquired about renting Woodruff Park or Centennial Olympic park but had decided against it due to fees, red tape and restrictions.

If Tea Party members had used civil disobedience, "we would have been removed and arrested," Dooley said.

"We feel like the mayor is selectively deciding who can use the parks," she said.

The Tea Party members say Reed should grant them a special executive order -- as he did for Occupy Atlanta -- allowing an outdoor event last past 11 p.m.

Reed gave a brief response Tuesday. "I think we'll handle it on a case-by-case basis," he said.

Not looking good for our side...

Al-Qaida plants its flag — literally — in Libya

If there were questions about al-Qaida’s role in post-Gadhafi Libya, VICE reporter Sherif Elhelwa provides some answers in a new story with eyewitness descriptions.

Al-Qaida flags, Elhelwa reports, are popping up around Benghazi. At the city courthouse, which played a prominent role in the Libyan revolution, residents are flying the late terrorist’s Osama bin Laden’s colors.

Similarly, Elhelwa recounts a regular evening sight: “Islamists driving brand-new SUVs and waving the black al Qaeda flag drive the city’s streets at night.”

Armed guards walk the streets, he reports, inspiring fear. Friendly civilians hurriedly warn Elhelwa that he is being watched by the Islamists. “I recommend that you leave now,” he is told.

Confirming his suspicion that Islamist extremists may have a larger foothold in the recovering region, one partisan near the courthouse threatens Elhelwa, warning him that if he disparages the al-Qaida flag, “we will cut off [your] tongue. I recommend that you don’t publish these [images]. You will bring trouble to yourself.”

“The war to rid the country of the Gadhafi dictatorship might have ended,” Elhelwa says, “but the battle for control of post-revolutionary Libya has only just begun.”

The face of crony socialism...

Why The Government Should Have Stayed Away From Fisker And Tesla

The Detroit News reports that the White House has ordered a review of the Department of Energy’s various loan programs in the wake of the Solyndra scandal, noting

White House Chief of Staff William Daley ordered an independent analysis on the state of the Department of Energy’s loan portfolio — including loans to solar, nuclear and auto companies.

“The president is committed to investing in clean energy because he understands that the jobs developing and manufacturing these technologies will either be created here or in other countries,” Daley said.

One of those programs is the so-called “Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing” loan program, which was nearly used to fund the Detroit bailout and has since come under fire from various quarters. Twice already the Government Accountability Office has questioned the ATVM loan program for its lax oversight, weak goals, lack of technical support, inconsistency in awarding loans and the undetermined impact of funded vehicles. And those internal issues could help explain why the Center For Public Integrity has accused the ATVM program of operating a patronage scheme, alleging that major Obama donor and Tesla board member Steve Westly personally benefitted from loans made to the company. And on the Fisker side of things, backer John Doerr of the VC firm KleinerPerkins is another major Obama donor, suggesting a pattern of politically-motivated loan awards to well-connected EV firms that carry high risks. With government intervention in the auto industry still a hot-button issue in the wake of the bailout, this scandal has huge implications for the legitimacy of America’s emerging “industrial policy.”

Meanwhile the real victim here could be Chrysler, which desperately needs to develop vehicles with higher fuel efficiency and yet has not received any loans that it applied for in the pre-bailout period. Not only could this put Chrysler’s finances under pressure, but it also shows a distinct lack of focus or strategy in the White House’s industrial policy. The bailout era was rife with justifications of the rescue of GM and Chrysler on the basis that the firms would build a new generation of green vehicles. And yet GM has withdrawn from the loan program, and Chrysler is being strung along… while both (but Chrysler in particular) struggle to bring up their average fuel economy which are two of the lowest in the industry. Having rescued these two firms, why would the government choose to send available loans to firms like Tesla and Fisker, which are aiming for the luxury segments and thus have less chance of creating significant impacts on both jobs and the US’s status as a green economy leader? The answer may prove to be found in the relationships between Fisker and Tesla’s well-connected backers.

The fact that Fisker is building its first car in Finland has dominated the political outrage over the ATVM loan program, but the real issue is the opportunity cost. If there is proof that Fisker and Tesla received loans because of political donations made by their backers, it will have diverted money from more effective opportunities, proving that government intervention in the economy is fundamentally fraught with inefficiency. Though Republicans and others have purely political motivations for trying to give the Obama Administration ahead of an election, there is a real principle at stake here. If the government is going to play a role in guiding industry towards more sustainable strategies, it needs to take the utmost care to optimize that aid in terms of both market and jobs impacts. The nature of the auto industry is such that start-ups face incredible challenges, and as luxury manufacturers, Tesla and Fisker will neither sell many cars nor employ many Americans. The resources, experience and infrastructure already in place at major manufacturers make them the logical place to invest “green” loans… especially because the bailout did not, in fact, prepare them especially well to compete in the green car space.

Ultimately, governments need to face a fundamental choice: either allow the market to drive innovation at the risk of losing jobs to other countries, or intervene with programs like this one on a purely utilitarian basis. There is some evidence that government incentives for future technology development can help lumbering auto firms prepare for unexpected energy shocks in ways that the market might not always be able to do, with its relatively short-term incentives. But if there’s not a utilitarian strategy underpinning these government interventions, the effort will inevitably fall victim to political patronage, and all of the inefficiency (not to mention blowback against all forms of government intervention in the economy) that comes with it. By giving hefty loans to two unproven but well-connected startups, the Obama Administration has run the risk of fostering a backlash against all forms of green incentives… and the result could be merciless market pressure on lagging firms like Chrysler should another oil price spike come. In that scenario, Chrysler could find itself in serious trouble again, and be forced back to Washington for its third bailout… further driving the inefficiencies of the apparently politically-motivated loans to Fisker and Tesla.

The upper reaches of the entitlement class. Educated but not so smart...

http://ken-jennings.com/blog/archives/3305

Not what the black/hispanic race baiters want you to know...

Asian Americans most bullied in US schools: study

Asian Americans endure far more bullying at US schools than members of other ethnic groups, with teenagers of the community three times as likely to face taunts on the Internet, new data shows.

Policymakers see a range of reasons for the harassment, including language barriers faced by some Asian American students and a spike in racial abuse following the September 11, 2001 attacks against children perceived as Muslim.

"This data is absolutely unacceptable and it must change. Our children have to be able to go to school free of fear," US Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Friday during a forum at the Center for American Progress think-tank.

The research, to be released on Saturday, found that 54 percent of Asian American teenagers said they were bullied in the classroom, sharply above the 31.3 percent of whites who reported being picked on.

The figure was 38.4 percent for African Americans and 34.3 percent for Hispanics, a government researcher involved in the data analysis told AFP. He requested anonymity because the data has not been made public.

The disparity was even more striking for cyber-bullying.

Some 62 percent of Asian Americans reported online harassment once or twice a month, compared with 18.1 percent of whites. The researcher said more study was needed on why the problem is so severe among Asian Americans.

The data comes from a 2009 survey supported by the US Justice Department and Education Department which interviewed some 6,500 students from ages 12 to 18. Asian Americans are generally defined as tracing ancestry to East Asia, the Indian subcontinent or the South Pacific.

Officials plan to announce the data during an event in New York on bullying as part of President Barack Obama's White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

New Jersey parent Shehnaz Abdeljaber, who will speak at the event, said she was shocked when she saw her son's middle school yearbook in which not only classmates but also a teacher wrote comments suggesting he was a terrorist.

Abdeljaber soon learned that her son had endured similar remarks at a younger age but had kept silent. She complained to the school principal but has since pushed for workshops on bullying that involve teachers and students.

"We need a more creative approach and more interaction with the youth, empowering them to do something rather than just going through the framework of authority," she said.

The Obama administration has put a priority on fighting bullying. In March, the president joined Facebook for an online anti-bullying conference, where he warned that social media was making the problem worse for many children.

Duncan, the education secretary, warned that bullying had serious effects as it can lead to mental and physical health problems including dependence on drugs or alcohol.

Duncan also voiced concern about high rates of bullying at schools against gay and lesbians, an issue that has come into greater focus since a spate of suicides last year among gay teens who were harassed.

"We're seeing folks who somehow seem a little different from the norm bearing the brunt," Duncan said.

"We're trying to shine a huge spotlight on this," he said.

A number of Asian countries have also wrestled with bullying.

Japan stepped up measures in 2006 after at least four youngsters killed themselves in a matter of days and the education minister said he had received an anonymous letter from a bullied student who was contemplating suicide.