And a Happy New Year!!!

EUROMED: Dooming Europe

In the Washington Times, Pamela Geller shines a light on EUROMED, an EUnion initiative coming into force as we pass into 2010 tonight. An initiative that will 'enrich' our blighted continent in the years to come.

The goal of the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation is to create a new Greater European Union encompassing both Europe and North Africa, with the Mediterranean Sea becoming a domestic Eurabian sea. The goal is to establish a "comprehensive political partnership," including a "free trade area and economic integration"; "considerably more money for the partners" (that is, more European money flowing into North Africa); and "cultural partnership" - that is, importation of Islamic culture into post-Christian Europe.

According to the SIOE, in the Euro-Med plan "Europe is to be islamized. Democracy, Christianity, European culture and Europeans are to be driven out of Europe. Fifty million North Africans from Muslim countries are to be imported into the EU."

More on the EUROMED initiative can be found here (and do follow the links). Robert Spencer also has one or two points.

Iran nearing tipping point?

Via Jim Hoft: The Iranian opposition website Planet Iran today published a letter (using the official letterhead of the National Security Agency of the Islamic regime) hinting that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, his family and several top dogs if the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are preparing to flee to Russia.

It reads:

Re: Response to a letter number [redacted] written on the 5th of Dey (December 26th).

Salam Aleykom

With respect, we would like to inform you of the inspection, check up and preparation of the aircraft, destination Russia, for the purpose of transporting the Supreme Leader, his esteemed family and various officials of the Revolutionary Guards. Should the commanding forces lose control, direct your attention to the attached permit, number [redacted] of the National Security Agency and the Bureau of Revolutionary Guard’s Intelligence Security in order for the necessary steps to be taken.

Va al-salam

Office of the high assembly of the Islamic Republic’s national security

Commander, Brigadier-General, Revolutionary Guard

Stamped by Secretary General of the High Assembly of the Islamic Republic’s National Security

Stamped by Dr. Saeed Jalili

CC: [redacted]

Compiled and translated from Persian to English by Planet Iran staff.

Elsewhere rumours have it that Khamenei already is rather skittish about developments in Iran. And regime critic Ayatollah Mohsen Kadivar is convinced the current regime will fall.

Throwing away bucket loads of our money

The table pictured above is from a paper entitled Green Protectionism in the European Union: How Europe’s Biofuels Policy and the Renewable Energy Directive Violate WTO Commitments (pdf). It shows the incredible amount of subsidies ('assistance') given by our governments to producers of supposedly 'green' energy alternatives like ethanol and biodiesel. Especially ethanol production receives 2.5 times the invested sum of money in tax payers money across Europe. Nice work, if you can get it...

The conclusion is not very difficult:

This structure of support and protection is not economically sustainable. It is rather close to economic madness to pursue the sort of self-sufficiency or industrial policy ambitions that have guided EU policy towards biofuels. The total cost of every unit of biofuel becomes far too high, which slows down the readiness to shift away from fossil fuels.

But then, that's the overall plan, isn't it? Making us poorer to subsidize India and China. Economic suicide, indeed.

(h/t Dagelijkse Standaard)

Making our lives even more miserable

EU Muslims Launch Rights Body

Muslims activists from 26 European countries have come together to launch the first rights association to enlighten European Muslims about their rights, monitor rising Islamophobia and defend Muslim rights in European courts of law.

"We think European human rights groups are not doing enough to defend the rights of Muslims," Ali Abu Shwaima, the director of the Islamic Center in Milano, told IslamOnline.net on Monday, December 21.

"Therefore we though (sic) that we need this new association, especially that all laws and constitutions in Europe respect freedom of religion and oppose all forms of discrimination and racism."

The Association for European Muslims Rights was launched Sunday, December 20, in the Belgian capital Brussels. (...)

The association would include four committees for violations monitoring, media outreach, governmental liaison and financial issues.

"We are now seeking to register the association with European countries and the European Union," Abu Shwaima. (...)

"The association will seek to enhance Muslims' awareness of their rights under the laws and constitutions of their European countries," says Abu Shwaima, a founding member.

"This could help abort far-rightists' attempts to deprive them of such rights." (...)

"The association will also monitor violations of Muslims' rights in view of rising Islamophobia in Europe," says Abu Shwaima.

"It intends to use the media to defend Muslim rights as well as highlight Muslim contributions to European societies in the cultural, economic and sports fields."

The association also plans to take Muslim grievances to European courts of law through a group of lawyers and legal experts.

"We will coordinate and cooperate with EU organizations, especially those that people can resort to when authorities in their own countries fail to protect their rights," says Abu Shwaima.

He noted that Swiss Muslims, for example, can go to the European Court of Human Rights to challenge a blanket ban on the construction of mosque minarets in the Alpine country.

H/T Esther, emphases mine - KV

[UPDATE001] Well, isn't this a surprise: Muslim Brotherhood behind new Muslims Rights group.

Unsurprisingly, the new European Muslim Human Rights group announced on the IslamOnline site, is the brainchild of the FIOE (Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe), the umbrella group for the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. The FIOE say they invited many experts in law and Muslim activists, but only 26 showed up. European media didn't pay much attention either.

A picture to make the blood curdle

From Bivouac-ID (FR), via Galliawatch. Go to the latter for the full story (or to the former if you read French).

Apparently this is a very misguided Swiss church, showing sympathy in the wake of the Swiss referendum (but it could equally well have been a British, French, Dutch or German church, for that matter).

The creators of this nativity, which at the very least is unusual, declared that the fruit of their inspiration will bring to parishioners an opportunity to reflect on tolerance and on Human Rights.

This is why nobody but the softest flesh of the soft underbelly of European societies will set foot in a church these days, you morally empty, spiritually barren nincompoops! What a disgusting bunch you are!

A deafening silence

Once again we're behind the news, because we were away for the holidays... I am talking of course of the foiled attack on Northwest Flight 253. Here's a recap through DutchNews.nl:

When the story first broke it was reported as fireworks being set off, but soon it turned out to be something far more serious. Although Schiphol authorities say all protocols were followed Schiphol immediately implemented 100% checks for all flights destined for the US.

The man of the hour was Jasper Schuringa, a Dutch businessman who has a video production company. He did not hesitate for a minute when he saw a Nigerian man stand up suddenly and cause an explosion which started a fire. Schuringa held the would-be shaheed in a head lock until the plane landed and police arrived.

Both the National Co-ordinator Anti-terrorism (NCTb) and the Royal Marechaussee (Military Police) have started investigations to find out how it was possible that the would-be shaheed spent three hours at Schiphol waiting for his connecting flight to the US but was able to get explosive material through security unhindered.

(here endeth the recap)

A part of the puzzle about the non-intercept of Abdulmuttallab may have been provided by Metro Detroit, who quote an eyewitness of Flight 253, a Kurt Haskell of Newport, Michigan (emphases are mine- KV):

Haskell said he and his wife were sitting on the ground near their boarding gate in Amsterdam, which is when they saw Mutallab approach the gate with an unidentified man. (...)

While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit, Haskell said. He says the suited man asked ticket agents whether Mutallab could board without a passport. “The guy said, 'He's from Sudan and we do this all the time.'”

Mutallab is Nigerian. Haskell believes the man may have been trying to garner sympathy for Mutallab's lack of documents by portraying him as a Sudanese refugee.

The ticket agent referred Mutallab and his companion to her manager down the hall, and Haskell didn't see Mutallab again until after he allegedly tried to detonate an explosive on the plane.

I totally believe that story. It is so typically in line with A) Dutch sympathies with asylum-seekers and illegals and B) the Dutch disregard for rules and regulations when it is either expedient or for a good cause. I would think that this story must then either be made up by a native Dutch, or is must be true. Since Haskell is not native Dutch, there isn't much choice left, is there? So, once again, it seems we have politically correct sympathies thwarting common sense and decency. Wouldn't be the first time, either.

In the mean time the Dutch are wondering where our leaders are. A flight carrying nearly 300 passengers, leaving our shores, narrowly escaped (but for a failing detonator apparently) being obliterated from the sky by a facsimile of human life that boarded the plane when it was still on our soil. But neither the Queen nor our intrepid PM, Jan-Peter Balkenende, saw fit to publicly comment on either the foiled attack or the heroic actions by our compatriot Jasper Schuringa.

De Dagelijkse Standaard is wondering the same thing:

The fact that Jasper Schuringa just about on his own prevented disaster from striking by showing initiative, has been dealt with by The Hague with a phone-call from [vice-PM and Minister of Finance] Wouter Bos (NL). But where is the public show of support for this hero? That the present government is too gutless to publicly denounce this act of terror shouldn't come as a surprise. That Jasper Schuringa is fobbed off with a phone-call from Wouter Bos should roundly be condemned is disgraceful.

Het Vrije Volk (NL) goes even further, suggesting that the silence by our Government (including Her Majesty) is 'begging for a growing PVV'. To wit: Geert Wilders' PVV (who else?) were on only political party with an official reaction. Wilders has said, they want to nominate Schuringa (NL) for decoration (royal or otherwise).

Be that as it may, the deafening silence from our elites does give pause...

[UPDATE001] And another one. Second incident on Amsterdam-Detroit flight:

Another man, also believed to be Nigerian, has been arrested following an incident on the Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Sunday, report various media.

It seems the man became abusive after being asked to leave the plane’s toilet where he had spent an unusually long time, according to the reports. The plane was approaching Detroit airport.

The crew requested assistance from the air traffic tower and the plane was routed to a special part of Detroit airport after landing. The man was arrested but according to media reports he is not believed to have represented a security risk.

[UPDATE002] In the Telegraaf today, some ex-employee tells a bit about the goings on within the company that is supposed to provide airport security at Schiphol (NL). The short version in EN is here. Juiciest tidbit:

One said: “Among my colleagues were friends of the condemned terrorist Samir A.”
Furthermore: “During the attacks on September 11, 2001, there was loud rejoicing among Muslim security workers.”

So, if this is true, then the question is now not "Why did it happen?", but rather "Why didn't it happen sooner and more often?".

Merry Christmas One and All

Klein Verzet is on a Christmas break. Probably until the new year that awaits us beyond the 31st of December of the year that was 2009. Time away from the blogs and a time to focus the mind on the positive aspects of life: Family, friends and faith.

This year, we'll leave you with a light-hearted, but nonetheless urgent message by the decidedly unPC Foamy the Squirrel for these profoundly PC times. From the mouths of babes and drunks... and foul-mouthed cartoon squirrels, evidently.

And so we bid you all very good holidays, and hope you will spend them with the food, drink and company you enjoy best. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

"No Christmas For You" - Copyright Jonathan Ian Mathers 2002-2008.
You are viewing this movie courtesy of The Friends of Foamy!

Giving the Brotherhood a voice in Holland - updated

Yahia Bouyafa (47) from IJsselstein is a busy man. He serves as chairman of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in the Netherlands (FION), the National Muslim Organizations (LMO), the Council of Moroccan Mosques in the Netherlands (RMMN), and the charitable organizations Europe Trust Nederland and Maroc Relief. Until recently he was a government partner as chairman of the Contact Groep Islam (CGI). Bouyafa also heads the mosque where he lives, has a media company, is board-member of the Dutch Muslim Council.

Bouyafa has an incredible network spanning the whole of the Netherlands and as such is one of the most influential people in the muslim diaspora in the Netherlands. And today the Volkskrant revealed (NL) that Bouyafa is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Esther has the translation of the Volkskrant article here. Bouyafa obviously denies his membership, but according to Harvard researcher Lorenzo Vidino this is par for the course:

"The European Muslim Brotherhood doesn't have any formal structure, there are no membership records." But there is interaction and financial support between branches.

Vidino describes the European MB-network as an "Islamic jet-set", which consists of a few hundred successful Muslims. There are linked by marriages, old friendships, business relationships and the MB ideology. Their names appear in countless interest clubs.

"Not all Muslim Brothers are recognizable as such," says an AIVD report from October 2007. According to the intelligence service the Brothers try to build good relations with Western politicians, journalists and the social mid-field. They set themselves up this way as though they look after wide-ranging interests and are legitimate spokespeople for the Islamic community. With the final goal - but this is not publicly proclaimed - to create an ultra-orthodox Islamic pillar in Western Europe.

Mr. Bouyafa is now planning to give the MB a voice on Dutch public television. After the demise of the two muslim broadcasters enriching Dutch state TV last October, a new muslim broadcaster, SMO, is about to enter the system. Any guesses who is a prominent board member?

Back in 2007 we wrote about a Nine Eleven / Finding Answers (NEFA) Foundation report about the growing influence of the Brotherhood in the Netherlands:

In this case the names to watch are Ibrahim Akkari and Yahya Bouyafa. (...) Read the entire [NEFA] report here. And for good measure, read the Brotherhoods game plan (aka The Project) here.

The plot is hatching, it seems.

[UPDATE001] The webmaster of the NL blog Nieuw Religieus Peil points out that Bouyafa has also gained some notoriety through his publishing house 'Noer Alim'. This publisher carries titles by the likes of Ali Tantawi, author of the infamous Introduction to Islam and Hassan al Banna and Yusuf al Qaradawi, the founder and spiritual leader of the MB, respectively. The latter in recent days made headlines with his sermon on the evils of Christmas, posted below.

[UPDATE002] Via Twitter, reader Etna Yoj points us to an article by Carel Brendel (NL), linking Amsterdam borough council leader (and labour PvdA's next big star) Achmed Marcouch to Bouyafa and the FION. of which Marcouch's brother was treasurer for a number of years. Evidently, earlier this year Achmed Marcouch sang the praises of al Qaradawi as ' a pope for muslims', who is preaching that 'European muslims ought to be good democratic citizens'. Doesn't really square with the video above, does it?

Anyway, it seems that with the outing of Bouyafa, the accusations in the direction of Achmed Marcouch with regard to his rather overt sympathies to the MB are back in the glaring light of day. Whether that will change anything in Amsterdam, the PvdA or Dutch politics in general is of course and unfortunately another question entirely...

BTW, Lorenzo Vidino, quoted above, warned us two years ago already about the Brotherhoods growing influence in the Netherlands.

A case-study into 'peer review'

Much of the warmists' defence against sceptics in general and the implications of Climategate in particular, depends on pointing out that much of the scientific literature sceptical of AGW never passed the peer-review system of many a journal. On the other hand, many papers supporting the hypothesis of AGW did pass peer-review.

Over at WUWT professors David H. Douglass and John R. Christy delved into the Climategate emails to reconstruct the process of peer-review in regard to a 'sceptical' paper they co-authored. It isn't pretty.

Anthropogenic Global Class Warfare

With a deal about to be closed in Copenhagen, I wanted to point readers to two rather important posts by EU Referendum about the actual meaning of the politics of AGW, the goal of Copenhagen and any deal that may (or may not) be closed there. And of the rather sleazy role the UNs chief climatologist railway engineer Rajendra Pachauri and the Tata Group play in all of this.

The first is Global warming: an economic war. In this post Richard North argues that AGW is the field of battle in an economic war between Western and Asian countries. One in which current Western governments are all too eager to quickly surrender. It also highlights the mode of operation of the Tata Group, the company which gave us the UNs chief climatologist railway engineer Rajendra Pachauri. Rather not surprisingly, the Tata Group is worse then the worst excesses of the biggest industrial conglomerations of the west, to wit:

Its history is marked by trail of human rights, labour and environmental abuses. It stands accused of genocide against indigenous tribes, fomenting civil war to achieve commercial ends, and dictatorial behaviour in the only private city in India, the steel city of Jamshedpur, where democracy has never existed and local elections are unknown.

In the troubled states where it operates, a state of civil war exists which the government is losing. In the majority of the districts, writ of government no longer prevails as the rebels capitalise on the extreme poverty. To obscure their popular origins, indigenous fighters are branded as "Marxists" and hunted down by company and state-financed militias, some recruited from the ranks of criminals, their barbarism and ferocity facilitated by rigorous media control and censorship, where Western journalists are not welcome.

The unrest is used by the company and its other corporate allies as an excuse to clear out tribal villages and forcibly resettle populations on a massive scale, fuelling tribal tensions and exacerbating the violence.

Tata in particular has a vice-like grip over the weak and corrupt national and state governments and, with mining and metals enterprises, effectively controls the State Pollution Control Board, which consistently acts against the interests of the people and the environment. Gross pollution is rampant, with unchecked deforestation.

Collectively, the corporates have enough power and economic clout to frame their own laws and weaken existing laws on human rights, investment, corporate liabilities and labour relations. Yet the "business-friendly" outward face presented to Western investors is a sham. The Corporatocracy, as represented by Tata, is a ruthless predator, bent only on enhancing its own power and wealth, regardless of the cost to others, plundering Western capital and assets.

The second is Climate justice. This one illustrates how AGW is used to ruthlessly play on 'white guilt' and is nothing more then a means to extort many, many more (tax) funds from western countries to prop up dysfunctional regimes in Africa and elsewhere. The central issue starts with a quote from the South African Times Live (partly given below): bb

Climategate clearly highlights what author and analyst Naomi Klein has called a class war. In an interview during the summit, she said: "This conversation that has started here [is] about the real face of environmentalism, as a class war that is being waged by the rich against the poor."

Class warfare? Where did we hear that before? Didn't we get rid of such muddled thinking back in 1989-1990?

Mr. North responds:

That is the beast naked in tooth and claw. "Global warming" has become the totemic issue, the cause over which the "white man" can be brought to "justice" and atone for his sins. That these representatives of the developing countries believe in global warming is because they want to believe it – not for what it is, but for what it represents. (...)

Global warming is not about science – it is an article of faith and it does represent the political fault-line between developing nations and the West. No amount of debunking of the flawed science is going to change that. (...)

This presents an intriguing if not alarming conundrum. Global warming advocates have released their own, rather more powerful genie and that too is going to be hard to put back in its bottle. We might win the scientific argument – at least in the Western media. But that means nothing if the real fight is the "class war" – or economic war, as I would have it.

That is one of the most profound effects of the 'Green Agenda'. It pitted developing nations against the developed world by providing the former with the idee-fixe that all of their woes are the 'white man's fault and they are entitled to huge wads of cash for the Wstern 'sin' of being successful. That 'class struggle' will be with us for quite some time to come. And given the lack of backbone in our current government elites, we in the West will all be paying dearly for years to come. And lose our independence in the process.

This is nothing less then imposing global communism on us. And don't kid yourself: In this particular play, we in the West are the Romanovs.

[UPDATE001] Here's EURefs take on the tentative (?) Copenhagen deal.

As for the rest, cheap electricity is a vital part of a competitive economy. Yet here we are burdening our own electricity suppliers with additional costs, some of which funds are then sent to our competitors in undeveloped countries, giving them an even cheaper cost base and even greater competitive advantage. No wonder we are going broke.

[UPDATE002] There is a deal, and while generally hailed as an abject failure (which ould be good news, James Delingpole sees it differently: Climategate: we won the battle, but at Copenhagen we just lost the war.

This nauseating piggery took two forms. First were the Third World kleptocracies – led by the likes of Hugo Chavez and Robert Mugabe – using “Global Warming” as an excuse to extort guilt-money from the Western nations.

Second, and much more dangerous, were the First World Corporatists who stand to make trillions of dollars using the Enron economics of carbon trading. Never mind all the talk of President Obama’s trifling $100 billion pledge. This is very small beer compared with the truly eye-watering sums that will be ransacked from our economies and our wallets over the next decades in the name of “carbon emissions reduction.”(...)

[Saving the Kyoto treaty] matters because it was at Kyoto that the mechanisms for establishing a global carbon market were established. Carbon trading could not possibly exist without some form of agreement between all the world’s governments on emissions: the market would simply collapse. By keeping Kyoto alive, the sinister troughers of global corporatism have also kept their cash cow alive.

Lighting the fuse?

Via Jim Hoft: Iranian forces entered Iraq today and took control of an oil well.

The AFP reported:

Iranian forces took control of a southern Iraqi oil well on a disputed section of the border on Friday, US and Iraqi officials told AFP.

“There has been no violence related to this incident and we trust this will be resolved through peaceful diplomacy between the governments of Iraq and Iran,” a US military spokesman told AFP at Contingency Operating Base Adder, just outside the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah.

“The oil field is in disputed territory in between Iranian and Iraqi border forts,” he said, adding that such incidents occur quite frequently.

The Iraqi government demanded an immediate withdrawal later today.
Sky News reported:

Iraq has demanded the immediate withdrawal of Iranian troops who have apparently seized control of a disputed oilfield in the south after “infiltrating” the border.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said his country viewed the alleged Iranian incursion into the Fakka oilfield and the area known as ‘Well Number Four’ as a violation of its sovereignty.

He added that Iraq is seeking a peaceful, diplomatic solution to the situation.

This will be interesting to watch...

Climategate ballooning

Another twisty turn in the UEA CRU climategate affair. The Moscow-based Institute of Economic Analysis (IEA) has accused CRU of cherry picking from Russian weather station data:

The IEA believes that Russian meteorological-station data did not substantiate the anthropogenic global-warming theory.

Analysts say Russian meteorological stations cover most of the country’s territory, and that the Hadley Center had used data submitted by only 25% of such stations in its reports. (...)

The data of stations located in areas not listed in the Hadley Climate Research Unit Temperature UK (HadCRUT) survey often does not show any substantial warming in the late 20th century and the early 21st century.

The Air Vent's Jeff Id, guest posting at WUWT, adds:

Again the accusation is completely believable, yet is completely unverifiable because CRU has refused to release the data. This data and code release is the subject of illegal blocking of FOIA’s is one of the keys in the Climategate emails. We need to know the list of stations used and we must have copies of the raw data.

This is a very powerful accusation, which if true could change much about the climate science debate. Many papers are based on this dataset which has the highest trend of the major ground datasets.

James Delingpole is covering this, as is the Daily Express. And of course EURef, who also have the graph of what those rejected stations were (or actually: were not) showing.

Also blogging:
Big Government
Climate Audit

Not your grandfather's climate change

After the furore of the last weeks, things around Climategate seem to have simmered down somewhat. But Climategate is still simmering. All warmists who were hoping Climategate might blow over yet were in for a shock today.

WUWT commenter J.C. wrote in to tell Anthony that the US Department of Energy has sent a "litigation hold notice" to several US institutes having had dealings with CRU.

DOE-SR has received a “Litigation Hold Notice” from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) General Council and the DOE Office of Inspector General regarding the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England. Accordingly, they are requesting that SRNS, SRR and other Site contractors locate and preserve all documents, records, data, correspondence, notes, and other materials, whether official or unofficial, original or duplicative, drafts or final versions, partial or complete that may relate to the global warming, including, but not limited to, the contract files, any related correspondence files, and any records, including emails or other correspondence, notes, documents, or other material related to this contract, regardless of its location or medium on which it is stored. In other words, please preserve any and all documents relevant to “global warming, the Climate Research Unit at he University of East Anglia In England, and/or climate change science.”

As another commenter explains, this means that either litigation has begun or is believed to be imminent. In any case, somebody in the US government is taking the implications of Climategate very seriously.

Elsewhere, for the umpteenth time in history Al Gore made a dire prediction, about there being a 75% change the Arctic will be free of ice within now and five years, saying he based his prediction on recent work by a renowned scientist. For the first time in history however 1) the scientist in question denied making the claim and 2) an MSM outlet reported the recantation: Inconvenient truth for Al Gore as his North Pole sums don't add up.

In his speech, Mr Gore told the conference: “These figures are fresh. Some of the models suggest to Dr [Wieslav] Maslowski that there is a 75 per cent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years.”

However, the climatologist whose work Mr Gore was relying upon dropped the former Vice-President in the water with an icy blast.

“It’s unclear to me how this figure was arrived at,” Dr Maslowski said. “I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this.”

Mr Gore’s office later admitted that the 75 per cent figure was one used by Dr Maslowksi as a “ballpark figure” several years ago in a conversation with Mr Gore.

Also take a look at the picture at the link. Al Gore looking like a tele-preacher about to burst in tears while admitting 'I have sinned!'.

In the mean time, from the UK Daily Express here's 100 reasons why climate change is natural. It seems that the whole climate change community is about to experience some radical changes itself, suffering from the onset of sudden deep cooling of its popularity with public and press alike.

And via EURef: The Gore-effect has reached Copenhagen, dumping a layer of global warming on the streets of the old city. Minister Cramer, are you paying attention?

[ADDENDUM] The total absence of the MSM is also noted by the Telegraphs Gerald Warner: Climategate: the ailing 'mainstream' media are committing suicide by ignoring the scoop of the century.

Every city in the developed world contains news rooms in which cringing journalists struggle to satisfy the imperative demands of editors for a scoop. Yet the obvious scoop – the BIG ONE of journalistic mythology – is consigned to the waste basket. This is the journalism of Isvestia and Pravda, with all the commercial viability that attached to that school of news reporting.

(...)

The Mainstream Media are hanging themselves – it is doubtful that they can any longer be described as mainstream. These are turkeys voting for Christmas.

Yep, that about says all there is to say. doesn't it?

A new year, a new court case

Another couple of weeks and 2009, the year that saw Global Warming and climate change science thoroughly discredited, will be over. The new year will be off to a flying start, with Geert Wilders having to appear before the court of law for ' incitement to hatred and discrimination'.

It has all the ingredients for becoming a huge spectacle. Wilders' lawyer, the famous-slash-notorious litigator Bram Moszkowicz has announced that the murderer of Theo van Gogh, Mohammed Bouyeri, will be called up as a witness (NL). GoV have more on the story here.

In the mean time people are wondering what the effects of the outcome of the case might be: What if Wilders is sentenced? (original NL item is here).

If Wilders is convicted, it will put an end to his political ability to fight Islam. Because then he will be disabled as a functioning politician. But it then goes even further. Because in such a case, from then on it also will be a criminal offense to criticize Islam. Muslims may at any time feel “offended”, “hated” and “discriminated against”. Judges in such cases must take account of the verdict against Wilders. This will not only cut off the political means to fight the Islam in the Netherlands, but also the public debate on Islam will have to go underground.

Or even worse: then a violent struggle against the Islam remains the only possibility. For that we will owe thanks to a court with a political opinion.

In the mean time socialist leader and minister of Finance Wouter Bos has said that the PvdA will never take part in a cabinet that includes Wilders' PVV. Not really a big loss, since the PvdA is projected to gain 10 to 12 seats (out of an 150 in Second Chamber) if an election were held. More a case of 'the PvdA will not take part in a cabinet', period.

Today news reached us that in the Netherlands resides a grand total of 1.1 million people having a 'double passport', the majority of which are (surprise, surprise) Turks and Moroccans. Just what effect this has on Dutch society was exemplified today. A Copt tram driver in Amsterdam was told by the court he could not wear a chain with a Christian cross openly. He had gone to court for receiving a reprimand by his employer, which incidentally does allow Muslim female tram drivers to wear a hijab, claiming discrimination of religious ground. But the court found its way around that objection:

The court said the public transport company's rules on wearing a uniform, safety and a professional appearance are not unreasonable. In addition, all necklaces are banned, not just those with religious symbols, the court said.

Such craven pre-emptive surrender does not merit commentary. It merits (contemptuous) silence and a little contemplation. Such is the current state of traditionally liberal, tolerant, free-thinking Holland. What a shame...

After Climategate: Carbongate?

As the Copenhagen summit wears on, the scale of the scam that is being perpetrated on the world is only now coming into focus.

Strike one...

Last week we blogged the news that estimates put 90% of the EUnion carbon trade as fraudulent. EUnion carbon credits are massively used as currency in a VAT (Dutch: BTW) evasion scheme, costing tax-payers about €5 billion.

Strike two...

Nearing the end of last week, EURef was hot on the case of Tata steel (Corus), which stands to earn £1.2 billion by closing a steel factory in the UK. The twist here is that the carbon credits awarded to the factory will remain in the possession of Tata steel, who have already indicated they will sell them off.

Following up, Christopher Booker in his column and EURef explain the links that exist between the Tata group and the UNs top climatologist railway engineer Rajendra Pachauri. Indeed the links are so close that WND is calling it as it sees it: U.N. climate chief cashes in on carbon. And in yet another follow-up Mr. North concludes: All roads lead to Pachauri.

Strike three...

And now, news reaches us (again via EURef) that in Australia, a previous government has 'gamed' the system of carbon credits as per the Kyoto protocol, to hide the fact that Aussie CO2 emissions rose by 30% over the last two decades, and come up with a seemingly admirable 9% increase of carbon emissions over 1990 levels.

The Australian government was able to do this by hatching a plot, already dubbed 'Carbongate' or 'the Great Carbon Heist', which consisted of a two-part trick. The first part was a special 'Australian clause' in the Kyoto accords, saying that the level of emissions from land clearing in 1990 were part of Australia's base line emission.

The second part of the trick was introducing (seemingly unrelated) legislation which prohibited Australian farmers from clearing land, a staggering 109 million hectares of privately owned land. For which farmers were never compensated, since the land was not technically expropriated. Thus the Australian government effectively “stole’ what has amounted to 83.7 million tonnes of Carbon Credits from private individual landholders and is the sole reason that todays Labor Prime Minister can be heralded as a true warrior of climate change with Australia having met its Kyoto obligation – cost free.

... And you're out?

The three strikes in this post happened all under the aegis of the Kyoto accords. Copenhagen is going to be even more monstrous, with absolutely no effect on the climate. The only thing it will do is to make the lives of ordinary citizens more and more expensive, with 'green' taxes on energy and increased prices on everything else, because factories will pass the costs of emission trading schemes and carbon credits on to customers.

And it is going to make a few, very unworthy, people unimaginably rich. Like Al Gore or Dr. Pachauri. It is the scam to end all scams, the mother of all scams, the... It is BIG! And we should be angry. Murderously angry!

Global warming inches thick on your doorstep

Via EURef, this is Joe Bastardi, from Accuweather, telling us the Gore-effect is coming to Europe with a vengeance:

"This is wild stuff ... this is astounding looking. This is something that I don't recall seeing where fully 80 percent of the Continent is covered by snow ... this is getting started earlier than I thought. Europe's in for a very cold period."

Go here for the details. Are we in for a White Christmas at long last?

One-way traffic

In their infinite the good folks behind Haloscan have decided to discontinue... Haloscan.

Well, not exactly. They're upgrading to Echo, which is a paid service. Cheap bastard that I am, I am looking into alternatives. I've backed up the comments all the way up to tonight. Tomorrow I will attempt a migration to another system. Until then comments are unfortunately off-line.

Pressing matters can be brought to my attention at Klein Verzet.

My apologies for the inconvenience.

[UPDATE001] Commenting is available again. A nifty new system by the good people of Disqus. Hope you like it (And more to the point: Hope I like it...).

I am trying to import the old haloscan comments into the new system. No luck so far. But help is on the way, hopefully.

Even cultural suicide is painless

Remember Mohammed Faizel Ali Enait? He is a muslim 'lawyer' and professional obtuse quarreller, who had decided that his faith did not allow him to stand up in court when the judges arrive. He was given an official warning by the local bar association, but here's the latest: Lawyer who refuses to stand wins appeal.

An orthodox Muslim lawyer who refuses to stand when judges enter the court room has had his official warning torn up by the legal profession's disciplinary council.

Mohammed Enait will not stand up for judges as is customary in Dutch courts because he says in Islam all men are equal. He was given a formal warning about his behaviour in May.

The disciplinary council said that as well as showing respect for the law, Enait should also be entitled to expect respect for an 'authentic system of beliefs'. In addition, Enait does not intend to insulting the court by not standing, news agency ANP quoted the council as saying.

'Enait does not intend to insulting'? This is the man who once described the Dutch as 'aboriginals'. He goes out of his way to insult and diminish every aspect of Dutch life and culture and so 'prove' the superiority of his misbegotten religion.

And now, because of a few wilfully blind Gutmenschen, he has won the right to show contempt for the Queens court for every muslim in this country. Next stop: Legitimizing contempt for Dutch law. Only because we just will not stand up and fight for what is ours.

Elsewhere, In The Hague another pair of Gutmenschen have taken it upon themselves to abolish Christmas: School 'Too Diverse' for Christmas Tree.

The Haagsche Hogeschool college will not put up a Christmas tree this year because it does not want to cause provocation to immigrant students. The tree is too closely linked with Christianity, according to the school management.

Traditionally, a meters-high tree always stood in the school's atrium. Now there are only some streamers and fairy lights hanging there. Management wants to "stress the international character and the diversity within the school" by this move. The school is opting for "light and heat," which can be enjoyed by everyone in his or her own manner, according to the management.

The college has 20,000 students. Thirty percent are of immigrant origin, as are 12 percent of the teachers. Many pupils expressed fury on the Internet about the decision not to put up a tree this year. "Because a handful of religious good-for-nothings take offence about a tree with some lights and coloured balls, the rest of the school community has to suffer," complained one pupil.

Lost for words, I am...

The minister is bananas?

We've covered the Dutch Environmental management minister, Jacqueline Cramer, before. For instance her unfortunate reaction to climategate, or her insistence that those that do not share her views on AGW are 'flat-earthers'.

From the Dutch libertarian blog Vrijspreker.nl we get the sad news that our minister of environmental affairs has definitively gone down the long slide into insanity: Cramer: By 2100 humanity will have disappeared from the planet (NL).

After millions of years of evolution, thousands of years of development from ape to human, after numerous civilizations, from the beginning of our era, the year 0, some 2000 years later it is happening at last: "we're (almost) all going extinct".

At least, that is what we're supposed to learn from a slide by Jacqueline Cramer, minister of Housing, Zoning and Environmental management, that came to this conclusion at a meeting of the Club of Rome in Amsterdam, October 2009.

The rather odd, unlikely presentation that Cramer gave at that meeting can be viewed here. The slide in question, including a fanciful graph to support the assertion, is at page 25. More alarming doom-saying can be found on the next slide. An overview of all presentations given at the meeting can be found here.

Now, assuming that my readers are pretty well versed in navigating the 'Net (you found this place, after all), I'd venture we all know there are some pretty wild views out there. 911-truthers, UFO-logists claiming a 'light ship' will come down and safe us all from ourselves, those that claim the moon-landing was recorded in a studio in Burbank, Los Angeles, or those that insist that Auschwitz was nothing more then a Jewish holiday camp, where exactly three people got ill after eating pudding that was left a tad too long.

The prediction that by 2100 the majority of humanity will be dead is right up there with the worst, most over the top predictions by the peak-oil afficionados. We all know the people behind those fanciful notions are marginal, either in real life or at least in the field they claim expertise on.

So, here are my question: When and how did we, in the Netherlands, end up in this situation? Where it is deemed to good idea to appoint someone who would make an excellent internet-crank as a minister serving in the Queens government? Presumably the rest of our government was in the loop on the presentation our Jacqui was giving. Did they not object? Can it be really true that they all share in the utter insanity of our Environmental ministers 'green' delusions? What have we got ourselves into?

[UPDATE001] And yesterday evening our minister flat-out refused (NL) to even look into the allegations of fraudulent behaviour following climategate. She is convinced the IPCC represents the highest virtues of scientific research. She claims the 'thousands of scientists' have all reached the same conclusion. Conclusions that demand action. Says the minster:

There is nothing fraudulent about the emails.

Remember that sentence. If and when a truly independent inquiry reaches its inevitable conclusion about the standards and conduct of the scientists involved, that would be a good time to remind her of that sentence.

[UPDATE002] To see Bananas Kramer in action, while mangling the Lingua Franca of science as well as international diplomacy, go here. The subtitles are in Dutch. They should have been in English, I fear.

Up to 90% of EUnion carbon trading fraudulent

This is what the Telegraph maintains: Carbon trading fraudsters in Europe pocket €5bn.

Carbon trading fraudsters may have accounted for up to 90pc of all market activity in some European countries, with criminals pocketing an estimated €5bn (£4.5bn) mainly in Britain, France, Spain, Denmark and Holland, according to Europol, the European law enforcement agency.

The revelation caused embarrassment for European Union negotiators at the Copenhagen climate change summit yesterday, where they have been pushing for an expansion of their system across the globe to penalise heavy emitters of carbon dioxide.

Rob Wainwright, the director of serious crime squad, said large-scale organised criminal activity had “endangered the credibility” of the current carbon trading system.

"Endangered the credibility"... After the Hockey Stick, Climategate, Kiwi Climategate, Aussie Climategate. When it rains it pours, evidently.

So how does it work?

[C]riminals are using “missing trader” techniques to buy up carbon credits elsewhere in Europe where there is a cheaper rate of VAT.

Then they sell on the credits in the UK, charging the domestic rate, and pocket the difference. This has been commonplace among trading of very mobile commodities across European borders, such as phones, computer chips and cigarettes.

And it will only get worse, EURef mentions that HSBC thinks that revenues from climate-related businesses could exceed US$2 trillion by 2020.

That would be US$2 trillion of taxpayer money. Our money. You know, those few strips of bacon we bring home every month. And in Copenhagen they're negotiating ways to get their hands on even those few strip left to us.

(Thanks to Esther for the tip)

In France the worm is turning?

From Islam in Europe: Muslims must be discreet about faith

Nicolas Sarkozy stoked the debate over immigration today with a warning to Muslims to practise their religion discreetly or face rejection by moderate Islam in France.

The President voiced sympathy for Swiss voters who opted last week to ban minarets as he tried to reassert himself in a debate over national identity which he launched last month but that has since spiralled out of his control. (...)

"Instead of condemning the Swiss out of hand, we should try to understand what they meant to express and what so many people in Europe feel, including people in France," he wrote. "Nothing would be worse than denial."

Climategate linkage

With Climategate and Copenhagen happening now at the same time it is neigh on impossible to keep track of the important stories in a half-way decent way. This post is a link-dump of posts I read today which I found most striking.

WSJ: The Copenhagen Concoction - The U.N.'s climate confab runs into the reality of costs and science.

Much of the momentum for Copenhagen is now driven by the alternative fuels industry and its investors, who stand to lose vast sums unless governments artificially raise the price of carbon. These include our friends at Kleiner Perkins, the ecoventure capital fund that includes Al Gore as a partner. And of course that part of the political class congenitally eager to redistribute taxpayer monies also wants to dispense "carbon credits" to friends and political donors.

Small Dead Animals: Climategate - Leaked

For the hacker to have collected all of this information s/he would have required extraordinary capabilities. The hacker would have to crack an Administrative file server to get to the emails and crack numerous workstations, desktops, and servers to get the documents. The hacker would have to map the complete UEA network to find out who was at what station and what services that station offered. S/he would have had to develop or implement exploits for each machine and operating system without knowing beforehand whether there was anything good on the machine worth collecting.

The only reasonable explanation for the archive being in this state is that the FOI Officer at the University was practising due diligence. The UEA was collecting data that couldn't be sheltered and they created FOIA2009.zip.

It is most likely that the FOI Officer at the University put it on an anonymous ftp server or that it resided on a shared folder that many people had access to and some curious individual looked at it.

Fausty's blog: The Carbon Credit scam: How it works

The new carboncredit market is a virtual repeat of the commodities-market casino that's been kind to Goldman, except it has one delicious new wrinkle: If the plan goes forward as expected, the rise in prices will be government-mandated. Goldman won't even have to rig the game. It will be rigged in advance.

ZeroHedge.com: Woman Who Invented Credit Default Swaps is One of the Key Architects of Carbon Derivatives, Which Would Be at the Very CENTER of Cap and Trade

Even George Soros, the billionaire hedge fund operator, says money managers would find ways to manipulate cap-and-trade markets. “The system can be gamed,” Soros, 79, remarked at a London School of Economics seminar in July. “That’s why financial types like me like it -- because there are financial opportunities”...

This decade has been the warmest on record, it was revealed today (Times story here, Dutch NOS story here). So, should we believe it? EURef has an answer:

Vicky Pope, head of climate change advice at the Met Office, said the Office analysed land temperature data using a computer code developed by CRU. She said CRU also supplied the Met Office with original data from some remote weather stations which had a significant impact on the global average.

Nuff said.

And last, but certainly not least: After Climategate hit the UK and New Zealand, it now has hit Australia. Over on WUWT: The Smoking Gun At Darwin Zero

One thing is clear from this. People who say that “Climategate was only about scientists behaving badly, but the data is OK” are wrong. At least one part of the data is bad, too. The Smoking Gun for that statement is at Darwin Zero.

That ol' Soviet feeling

Bishop Hill has been busy writing the book on the Hockey Stick saga. Getting knowledgeable people to review the book, however, proves to be a bit bothersome. In a post entitled Climate of Fear the Bishop shares a (redacted to protect the innocent) email he received from a contact:

Asked for names of potential writers, I feel like an early Lutheran asked to identify his fellow readers of English bibles and knowing that Sir Thomas Gore, sorry More, is reading my letters and tightening his thumbscrews in Chelsea. In other words, like you, I know lots of people who are on side privately but daren't say so publicly. The other day I bumped into ************** at an event and said something about his global warming views (sceptical) and he froze and said `I don't do that stuff now - people would not touch me if I did'.

And this is the 'Free West' we are living in? Where people are too afraid to give their independent opinion, for fear of social ostracism? When and how did this dreadful state of affairs come about?

[UPDATE001] Or how about this one: Andrew Revkin, NYT columnist and famous for his supporting role in the climategate emails, made some less then earnest remarks about the climate summit in Copenhagen. Promptly he received an email from climatologist Michael Schlesinger:

The vibe that I am getting from here, there and everywhere is that your reportage is very worrisome to most climate scientists. Of course, your blog is your blog. But, I sense that you are about to experience the ‘Big Cutoff’ from those of us who believe we can no longer trust you, me included.

If anything, it is this exact attitude that made the Climategate emails so shocking. Not easy learning the lesson, apparently.

Full and (in)voluntary disclosure

Today in the Wall Street Journal a closer look at what the UN's chief of the IPCC, Rajendra Pachauri (the famous climatologist railway engineer), seems to think is the real agenda of the Copenhagen summit.

"Today we have reached the point where consumption and people's desire to consume has grown out of proportion," he told the Observer, also on Sunday. "The reality is that our lifestyles are unsustainable."

Leading the WSJ to the obvious conclusion that the UN, by way of Mr. Pachauri is only interested in the science as a tool to push a global collectivist agenda:

In other words, if Mr. Pachauri is sanguine about the undermining of the IPCC's scientific methods, it's because his chief concern isn't the science at all. Rather, to judge by his recent public statements, he is more focused on an ideological economic agenda in which climate change is little more than a useful tool. Given the cover-ups exposed by the leaked emails, we'll take Mr. Pachauri's remarks as a welcome instance of full and voluntary disclosure.

So, Copenhagen isn't about climate, but about 'spreading the wealth' around every dysfunctional regime in every hell-hole on Gods green earth, is it? Glad we got that sorted out.

[UPDATE001] From the unfinished business department: Last month, in the wake of the second Irish referendum, EURef did an item I'd been meaning to blog: The lust for "power". In that post there is a link to a document, the hyper-link text very aptly reading "end game", which is even more pertinent to what is being concocted in Copenhagen.

In light of van Rompuy's recent offhand comment about global governance, this is one read you may not want to miss. Click the link, print it out and make sure you sit down before you read it. Twenty years after the Berlin Wall came down, after the Velvet Revolution and the toppling of Ceausescu's the communists are on the verge of victory after all.

The dam has broken

Finally. Finally.

Climate gate is now 16 days old. For the last two weeks we have been wondering: Where the hell is our press?

Up to now, it was only the Telegraaf which reported some on the ongoing controversy. Other MSM newspapers, like NRC and De Volkskrant did their utmost to downplay the scandal as a side-show, with no bearing on the actuality of AGW.

Today, one other paper of the big four, Trouw, published a long article (NL) by renowned climate sceptic Hans Labohm, in which the many reasons to distrust the AGW hypothesis (Climategate, the fictional hockeystick, the many failed predictions by the IPCC, etc.) are meticulously described. The paper even has the courage to leave in the paragraphs in which Labohm is accusing various parties of abusing the AGW scare for their own, collectivist and freedom destroying, agendas.

The article is too long for me to translate. And anyway, it contains nothing new for those reading blogs like this one, or EU Referendum or WUWT (or De Dagelijkse Standaard, of your Dutch). But if you can read Dutch and want a nice overview of what the sceptic side of the debate is thinking you could do worse than to head on over and read the thing in its entirety.

Up until this weekend Trouw, like the NRC and De Volkskrant, was residing firmly in the camp of the warmists. Moreoever, where De Telegraaf is often dismissed as a right-wing rag for the (dumb) masses, Trouw has some intellectual credentials.

Hence, this article is a sign. The Dutch MSM is not able anymore to keep the lid on the climategate scandal. Trouw was the first to cave to the pressure. The dam has broken.

[UPDATE001] Via Sir Henry Morgan (thank you, good sir): Lord Monckton has written a 43 page pamflet entitled Climategate: Caugh Green-Handed (pdf). It delves into the leaked material and does a good job of explaining the significance and implications of what was found in the emails and the actual programming code used by the CRU team to 'hide the decline' (among other things).

[UPDATE002] Don't miss Christopher Booker covering 'the most influential tree in the world'. In the mean time, Canada's The Globe and Mail is warning investors with climate related issues in their portfolios to get out while they still can: 'How close are we to the unravelling of the global warming fad? I think it has started.'

The blue elephant in the room

Britain: Drink drive limit to be reviewed by expert.

The present legal-drink drive limit is 80mg of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, however there has been increasing support for a lowering of the limit to 50mg.

Ireland: Lower Blood Alcohol Levels Can Save Lives

[Secretary General Jack Short of the International Transport Forum] welcomed the proposal in Ireland to reduce blood alcohol limits to 0.5 g/l for general drivers, as is already the case in nearly all EU countries, and 0.2 g/l for young and professional drivers

The Netherlands: Safe Traffic Netherlands wants zero line alcohol in traffic

Given that [0.2 g/l] actually means even one glass is too much, we'd like to see this threshold for everyone.

Belgium: Stricter alcohol limit in Belgium.

Belgium will introduce a limit to alcohol of [0.2 g/l] for motorists, chauffeurs of trucks and buses and drivers with less then two years experience.

Coincidence? No, it's not!

This is an EU initiative. It goes right back to May 2004 when the EU decided it wanted common drink-driving limits. Only, instead of coming out in the open, it is pushing for each member state "voluntarily" to impose harmonised standards, and only then will it issue a Directive, claiming that this is simply to regularise a position that already exists.

The EU commission is well-aware that bringing out a harmonising Directive at this stage would trigger a huge wave of protest and anti-EU sentiment, so it is working behind the scenes, with a threat that, unless the member states comply "voluntarily" it will push for a new law.

The whole agenda was set out in 2002 (138 pages .pdf) - a project called "ESCAPE", which plans EU-wide traffic law harmonisation and common enforcement standards. The drink-drive limit is only one of the proposals. Standard speed limits, random breath-testing and uniform fines are all proposed.

(emphasis is mine - KV)

The starred blue elephant strikes again!

The science of AGW is now officially dead

"Poor Al Gore. Global Warming completely debunked via the very internet you invented"

If you're in a position where even Jon Stewart is turning on you, you have lost.

Over... And done with.

Goodbye!

Jim Hansen is the leaker?

EU Referendum suggested it first.

Although he might seem an unlikely suspect, in The Guardian today, he reveals his underlying motivation, telling the paper that it would be better for the planet and for future generations if next week's Copenhagen climate change summit ended in collapse.(...) This is a man with the motive and, from his elevated status in the "climate change community", he undoubtedly had the opportunity and the access.

By way of further confirmation that he dun it, it is highly suspicious that none of the emails released incriminate him or his Goddard Institute. And who else would have the knowledge to select such incriminating information from the mass of material that must be stored on the CRU computer?

JammieWearingFool thinks the suspicions merited. And now Hot Air and the Instapundit (Glen Reynolds) have picked it up.

So, is he?

Demise of science VI: WSJ on Climategate

Daniel Henninger in a Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled Climategate: Science Is Dying draws exactly the right conclusion from the Climategate scandal:

As the hard sciences—physics, biology, chemistry, electrical engineering—came to dominate intellectual life in the last century, some academics in the humanities devised the theory of postmodernism, which liberated them from their colleagues in the sciences. Postmodernism, a self-consciously "unprovable" theory, replaced formal structures with subjectivity. With the revelations of East Anglia, this slippery and variable intellectual world has crossed into the hard sciences.

This has harsh implications for the credibility of science generally. Hard science, alongside medicine, was one of the few things left accorded automatic stature and respect by most untrained lay persons. But the average person reading accounts of the East Anglia emails will conclude that hard science has become just another faction, as politicized and "messy" as, say, gender studies.

His conclusion is one with which we completely and utterly agree:

Science is on the credibility bubble. If it pops, centuries of what we understand to be the role of science go with it.

Follow the money

In the Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens does what Woodward and Bernstein did in the 'good old days': Follow the Money.

Consider the case of Phil Jones, the director of the CRU and the man at the heart of climategate. According to one of the documents hacked from his center, between 2000 and 2006 Mr. Jones was the recipient (or co-recipient) of some $19 million worth of research grants, a sixfold increase over what he'd been awarded in the 1990s.

Last year, Stephens writes, Exxon spent a grand total of $ 7 million on 'grab-bag of public policy institutes'. That is the sum total. Kinda pales in comparison with the $19 million for Phil Jones alone, doesn't it? The grand total spent on 'green' issues is vastly greater.

[T]he European Commission's most recent appropriation for climate research comes to nearly $3 billion, and that's not counting funds from the EU's member governments. In the U.S., the House intends to spend $1.3 billion on NASA's climate efforts, $400 million on NOAA's, and another $300 million for the National Science Foundation. The states also have a piece of the action, with California—apparently not feeling bankrupt enough—devoting $600 million to their own climate initiative. In Australia, alarmists have their own Department of Climate Change at their funding disposal.

And all this is only a fraction of the $94 billion that HSBC Bank estimates has been spent globally this year on what it calls "green stimulus"—largely ethanol and other alternative energy schemes—of the kind from which Al Gore and his partners at Kleiner Perkins hope to profit handsomely.

(emphasis mine - KV)

All this makes you wonder which side of the debate is actually in it for the money...

[Instant UPDATE] Here's a surprise (not!). From Fox News: Document Reveals U.N.'s Goal of Becoming Rule-Maker in Global Environmental Talks.

The purpose of the paper, put together after an unpublicized day-long session in Switzerland by some of the world's top environmental bureaucrats: to argue for a new and unprecedented effort to move environmental concerns to "the center of political and economic decision-making" around the world — and perhaps not coincidentally, expand the influence and reach of UNEP at the tables of world power, as a rule-maker and potential supervisor of the New Environmental Order.

This puts van Rompuy's recent utterings in a whole new, quite sinister light, doesn't it?

[UPDATE001] Very useful website: The Green Agenda.

But tell us how you really feel

Enjoyable post by Pam Geller: Europe Reaction: Swiss Accord? .... oui. It's a compilation of screenshots from on-line polls in the EUnion press about the Swiss referendum on minarets held last Sunday. And it paints a picture that is diametrically at odds with the bombastic condemnations of the Swiss people by the worlds leaders.

The overall picture is remarkably unambiguous: Around three-quarters of those polled agree with the Swiss referendum and its outcome. Three quarters! Apparently, there is a commonality among the peoples of the EUnion after all: their complete divergence from their political elites.

That is one signal that wise statesmen and women would heed. But we're all governed by the EUnion now, where wise statespersons are very, VERY sparse. Which means the clear and possibly worrying signal will go all but unheeded.

[UPDATE001] Gates of Vienna has more bombastic 'official' pronouncements.

Climategate: First heads to roll

Via EU Referendum: The Associated Press reports that Phil Jones, director of CRU, is stepping down pending an investigation into allegations that he overstated the case for man-made climate change.

The university says Phil Jones will relinquish his position until the completion of an independent review into allegations that he worked to alter the way in which global temperature data was presented.

One down, many more to go.

Elsewhere, Australian liberal conservative leader Malcolm Turnbull was forced to step down after five of his MPs deserted him over his consent to the introduction of an emission trading scheme. Which makes Turnbull the first political head to roll in the wake of climategate.

And in the Netherlands? Hitting Google News gives 13 results, with only two of those related to an MSM outlet (both from De Telegraaf) and one a news service. And the links to the Telegraaf are by virtue of commenters referring to the scandal, not by Telegraaf journalists doing their job. That sound you hear is our MSM snoring (or is it: furtively looking away?).

We asked the question a few days ago. It is now CG day + 12, and the question still stands:

Where the hell is our press?

[UPDATE001] After East Anglia's CRU and Penn State, two more institutes are implicated in the Climategate scandal: New York State University in Albany and the Queens University in Belfast. Pajamas has the details.

[UPDATE002] In Australia the proposed Emission Trading Scheme was voted down in parliament 41-33.

The 41-33 vote followed a tumultuous debate in which the conservative main opposition party at first agreed to support a version of the government’s bill, then dramatically dumped its leader and switched sides after bitter divisions erupted within the party.

WUWT has more.

Drop dead!

During a plenary session of Second Chamber today, commemorating the handing over of the Netherlands to a foreign government, CDA MP Henk Jan Ormel proposed to fly the Euro blue (NL) from every government and parliamentary building.

As the Lisbon Treat is officially entering into force today, Ormel says, this means that 'national parliaments are now formally involved in European decision making'. This would make a good reason the fly the Euro blue, because "a flag speaks to many people".

This is the second time the Christian Democrats are pushing one of those constitutional symbols we were supposed to be rid of. Back in 2007 Labour didn't agree and the proposal was defeated. Ormel thinks he can do better this time.

"A flag speaks to many people". But what does it say? Many will not be able to walk past a Euro blue without remembering the treason perpetrated by the political elite, specifically in the CDA, without remembering the bald lies (perpetuated by Ormel during the plenary session) that giving over power to the EUnion organs somehow increases democracy, instead of destroying it.

Many will look upon a strange flag flying like and equal next to our own tri-color and see a symbol of foreign occupation. To such blatantly treasonous nonsense from a member of parliament, who after all is sworn to serve the Queen and the Dutch people, there is only one fitting answer: 'Mister Ormel, we sincerely invite you to DROP DEAD at your earliest convenience'.

Thank you