Uncategorized

A couple of mind boggling numbers out of the states. Annual spending in the US exceeds the 2007 levels by a trillion dollars a year, which causes me to believe its going to be next on plate for a sovereign debt crisis. Keep in mind though, despite the increase in spending they have a slow economy so the revenues basically haven’t really changed since 2007 despite the dramatic increase in spending. So what do you get when you increase spending by a trillion a year, year after year when your revenues don’t increase? Dramatic budget deficits thats what you get. 1.4 trillion in 2009, 1.3 trillion in 2010, 1.3 trillion 2011, and another 1.3 trillion forecast for 2012.

That 4 year increase in borrowing, to make it a little more real, amounts to $55,000 per US  household. Or to put it another way, a broke US government bought 100 million Americans a brand new luxury car with that 5.3 Trillion in budget deficit borrowed money.

US treasury is trying to borrow all its money short term because short term interest rates are low. Wait till those rate go up, and they will at some point. President Obamas budget this year was voted down by the entire Congress both Democrat and Republican by 414-0. Nor has a budget been passed in the US for 3 1/2 years, The U’S has now has a debt to GDP ration of 80%, double what it was in 2008. And that doesn’t include state and municipality debt!  What’s interesting about that is its a larger percentage point increase in debt to GDP than Greece from the end of 2008 to today. Greece is supposedly the planets basket case and the US is doing worse!.

Germany has gone further down the ‘renewables’ path than any country in the world, and now it’s paying the price.

On Friday, September 14, just before 10am, Britain’s 3,500 wind turbines broke all records by briefly supplying just over four gigawatts (GW) of electricity to the national grid. Three hours later, in Germany, that country’s 23,000 wind turbines and millions of solar panels similarly achieved an unprecedented output of 31GW. But the responses to these events in the two countries could not have been in starker contrast.

In Britain, the wind industry proclaimed a triumph. Maria McCaffery, the CEO of RenewableUK, crowed that “this record high shows that wind energy is providing a reliable, secure supply of electricity to an ever-growing number of British homes and businesses” and that “this bountiful free resource will help drive down energy bills”. But in Germany, the news was greeted with dismay, for reasons which merit serious attention here in Britain.

Germany is way ahead of us on the very path our politicians want us to follow – and the problems it has encountered as a result are big news there. In fact, Germany is being horribly caught out by precisely the same delusion about renewable energy that our own politicians have fallen for. Like all enthusiasts for “free, clean, renewable electricity”, they overlook the fatal implications of the fact that wind speeds and sunlight constantly vary. They are taken in by the wind industry’s trick of vastly exaggerating the usefulness of wind farms by talking in terms of their “capacity”, hiding the fact that their actual output will waver between 100 per cent of capacity and zero. In Britain it averages around 25 per cent; in Germany it is lower, just 17 per cent.

The more a country depends on such sources of energy, the more there will arise – as Germany is discovering – two massive technical problems. One is that it becomes incredibly difficult to maintain a consistent supply of power to the grid, when that wildly fluctuating renewable output has to be balanced by input from conventional power stations. The other is that, to keep that back-up constantly available can require fossil-fuel power plants to run much of the time very inefficiently and expensively (incidentally chucking out so much more “carbon” than normal that it negates any supposed CO2 savings from the wind).

Both these problems have come home to roost in Germany in a big way, because it has gone more aggressively down the renewables route than any other country in the world. Having poured hundreds of billions of euros in subsidies into wind and solar power, making its electricity bills almost the highest in Europe, the picture that Germany presents is, on paper, almost everything the most rabid greenie could want. Last year, its wind turbines already had 29GW of capacity, equivalent to a quarter of Germany’s average electricity demand. But because these turbines are even less efficient than our own, their actual output averaged only 5GW, and most of the rest had to come from grown-up power stations, ready to supply up to 29GW at any time and then switch off as the wind picked up again.

Now the problem for the German grid has become even worse. Thanks to a flood of subsidies unleashed by Angela Merkel’s government, renewable capacity has risen still further (solar, for instance, by 43 per cent). This makes it so difficult to keep the grid balanced that it is permanently at risk of power failures. (When the power to one Hamburg aluminium factory failed recently, for only a fraction of a second, it shut down the plant, causing serious damage.) Energy-intensive industries are having to install their own generators, or are looking to leave Germany altogether.

In fact, a mighty battle is now developing in Germany between green fantasists and practical realists. Because renewable energy must by law have priority in supplying the grid, the owners of conventional power stations, finding they have to run plants unprofitably, are so angry that they are threatening to close many of them down. The government response, astonishingly, has been to propose a new law forcing them to continue running their plants at a loss.

Meanwhile, firms such as RWE and E.on are going flat out to build 16 new coal-fired and 15 new gas-fired power stations by 2020, with a combined output equivalent to some 38 per cent of Germany’s electricity needs. None of these will be required to have “carbon capture and storage” (CCS), which is just an empty pipedream. This makes nonsense of any pretence that Germany will meet its EU target for reducing CO2 emissions (and Mrs Merkel’s equally fanciful goal of producing 35 per cent of electricity from renewables).

In brief, Germany’s renewables drive is turning out to be a disaster. This should particularly concern us because our Government, with its plan to build 30,000 turbines, to meet our EU target of sourcing 32 per cent of our electricity from renewables by 2020, is hell-bent on the same path. But our own “big six” electricity companies, including RWE and E.on, are told that they cannot build any replacements for our coal-fired stations (many soon to be closed under EU rules) which last week were supplying more than 40 per cent of our power – unless they are fitted with that make-believe CCS. A similar threat hangs over plans to build new gas-fired plants of the type that will be essential to provide up to 100 per cent back-up for those useless windmills.

Everything about the battle now raging in Germany applies equally to us here in Britain – except that we have only fantasists such as Ed Davey in charge of our energy policy. Unless the realists stage a counter-coup very fast, we are in deep trouble.

Only warmists could pass this A-level

While Michael Gove tries valiantly to remedy our dysfunctional exam system he might take a look at some recent papers, such as that set last June for A-level General Studies students by our leading exam body, AQA. Candidates were asked to discuss 11 pages of “source material” on the subject of climate change. Sources ranged from a report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to The Guardian, all shamelessly promoting global warming alarmism. One document from the Met Office solemnly predicted that “even if global temperatures only rise by 2 degrees C, 30-40 per cent of species could face extinction”. A graph from the US Environmental Protection Agency showed temperatures having soared in the past 100 years by 1.4 degrees – exactly twice the generally accepted figure.

The only hint that anyone might question such beliefs was an article by Louise Gray from The Daily Telegraph, which quoted that tireless campaigner for the warmist cause, Bob Ward of the Grantham Institute, dismissing all sceptics as “a remnant group of dinosaurs” who “misunderstood the point of science”.

If it were still a purpose of education to teach people to examine evidence and think rationally, any bright A-level candidate might have had a field day, showing how all this “source material” was no more than vacuous, one-sided propaganda. But today one fears they would have been marked down so severely for not coming up with the desired answers that they would have been among the tiny handful of candidates given an unequivocal “fail”.

The State Department has gone into full-blown crisis mode, organizing a round-the-clock effort to coordinate the U.S. government’s response to the expanding attacks on U.S. embassies in the Middle East and North Africa.

“The State Department has stood up a 24-hr monitoring team to insure appropriate coordination of information and our response. In addition, our consular team is working with missions around the world to protect American citizens and issue appropriate public warden information,” a senior State Department official told reporters Friday afternoon.

“We have been monitoring events in the Middle East and North Africa intensively today, and working with our personnel and missions overseas and host governments to strengthen security in all locations and to respond effectively where protests have turned violent,” the official said.

The official noted that U.S. embassies in Libya and Yemen have been reinforced with Marine FAST teams and noted that other unspecified measures are being taken to strengthen embassy security around the region. The State Department is working with the governments in Tunisia and Sudan to increase security at the U.S. embassies there as well, the official said.

The U.S. Embassy in Tunis was breached by rioters who replaced the American flag with the black banner of al Qaeda. According to Tunisian state television, at least three Tunisians died when security forces open fire in an effort to disperse the crowd; another rioter was killed in Sudan, Reuters reported.

“The secretary, other department principals, and our ambassadors and charges in the field have been in constant contact with regional leaders, and we appreciate the many public statements that leaders have made in recent days condemning the attack in Benghazi, denouncing violence and calling for calm,” the official said.

The White House said in a memorandum to Congress Friday that the Marine FAST teams will be there are long as they are needed but will be limited to the mission of protecting U.S. assets and personnel.

“Although these security forces are equipped for combat, these movements have been undertaken solely for the purpose of protecting American citizens and property. These security forces will remain in Libya and in Yemen until the security situation becomes such that they are no longer needed,” the White House memorandum stated.

MOB AT US EMBASSY IN LONDON BURNS AMERICAN FLAG…

WH: Protests not directed at US…

‘We’re very proud of the president’s record on foreign policy’…


The Real Culprit


“A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins.” – Benjamin Franklin

Today’s America is hardly a “nation of well-informed men.”  But are Americans really to blame for their ignorance?  Yes, to some extent they are.  Anyone willing to invest a little time in a search for facts can find plenty of them literally at his fingertips.  But vast numbers of Americans are still totally dependent for their information — and thus in large measure for their political opinions — on the TV networks and the printed media.

It is the duty of the press to perform the crucial function of enlightening the public.  But the liberal media refuses to act as a guardian of democracy, fulfilling its obligation enshrined in the First Amendment. Rather than supplying its customers with unbiased, factual information, it feeds them a steady diet of blatant propaganda.  Thus, it is the liberal media that bears the lion’s share of the blame for the benighted state of much of the American electorate.

…..read more HERE


US Embassy Attacked – Marines not permitted to carry ammunition

Posted by Via Drudge

on Thursday, 13 September 2012 16:53

U.S. Marines defending the American embassy in Egypt were not permitted by the State Department to carry live ammunition, limiting their ability to respond to attacks like those this week on the U.S. consulate in Cairo. – more HERE

When They Are Up Against These People……?

Turmoil Over Contentious Video Spreads to Yemen and Iran

 

14yemen-image2-articleLarge-v2

Turmoil in the Arab world linked to an American-made video denigrating the Prophet Muhammad spread on Thursday to Yemen, where hundreds of protesters attacked the American Embassy, two days after assailants killed four Americans in Libya, including the ambassador, and crowds tried to overrun the embassy compound in Cairo.

On Bended Knee

by Alan P. Halbert via American Thinker

I came across this article on FOX news and it struck me that we are a nation adrift without a course and rudder to steer us towards our destiny in this hostile world.  The most powerful nation and military in the world has the Joint Chiefs Chairman pleading with a Pastor of a 50 member congregation in Florida to pull his support of the video that has supposedly caused this recent strife and turmoil in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Tunisia, here is the report from FOX news:

“Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with Terry Jones by phone Wednesday morning to voice his concerns. 

In the brief call, Gen Dempsey expressed his concerns over the nature of the film, the tensions it will inflame and the violence it will cause. He asked Mr. Jones to consider withdrawing his support for the film,” Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said. 

Four American officials, including the ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, were killed in the attack Tuesday on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. There are conflicting stories over whether the protesters in Libya were attacking because of the film or whether it was a pre-planned and coordinated strike.   

Jones has caused Pentagon concern before, when he threatened to burn Korans. He eventually called off the demonstration.“

Clearly this nation is leaderless when with the Military and its top general is begging a Pastor of a Podunk church in Florida to withdraw a meaningless affirmation of the film that allegedly provoked this recent outbreak of Muslim violence. Does anyone else see that our Military does not have any guidance or policy from Obama and his regime much less any handle from an intelligence perspective on what is really is going on, that they have to go on bended knee to this Pastor.

For lack of a better term a ‘nobody’ clearly we are in dangerous territory.

This is a clear cut indication that we do not have any coherent ‘policy’ for the Middle East and Obama is making it up as he goes, or he is actively pursuing and pushing us and the civilized world into another worldwide conflagration. This time with the Muslim world and the military is acting on their own volition to dampen this tense situation. – end

 

News reports also spoke of a protest in Tehran, where around 500 Iranians chanting “Death to America” tried to converge on the Swiss Embassy, which handles United States interests in the absence of formal diplomatic relations with Washington. Hundreds of police officers held the crowds back from the diplomatic compound, witnesses said. – more HERE

“When crazy people with political power tell you what they’re going to do — believe them.”

“I’ve been out of the intelligence business for many years now, so I’ve stayed out of the debate over Iran’s nuclear program.  I learned a long time ago that when people who don’t have access to highly classified intelligence about an issue like this one prattle on about what they think is happening, or is likely to happen, they tend to get it wrong.  But the debate over Iran’s nuclear program has become so feckless — so disconnected from reality — that perhaps it’s time to inject a dose of what those of us who served on the national security side of the Reagan administration used to call “real-world intelligence.” 

“Of course Iran is building a nuclear bomb; the evidence is obvious and overwhelming. The only purpose of those leaked National Intelligence Estimates asserting that Iran hasn’t actually made the decision to build a nuclear bomb, and of similar leaked documents from European intelligence services, is to prevent what the analysts fear would happen. They’re afraid that if they officially judge Iran to be on the verge of having a nuclear bomb, political pressure for a military attack will become irresistible. They want to delay action until it’s too late, so we will be left with no choice except to live with a nuclear-armed Iran.”

“Let’s focus on the three big questions that lie at the core of this potentially literally explosive issue:”

Ed Note:This is a great article that casts an intelligent agent’s perspective on the issue and answers the following 3 Questions in a way that you have highly likely not heard from the media or politicians to date. He explains in detail why…. “One way or the other, don’t be surprised if one morning in the not-too-distant future you turn on your television and see smoke”.

1. When, precisely, will Iran have a nuclear weapon?

2. If Iran is on the verge of having a nuclear bomb, why do I keep hearing that the CIA isn’t convinced Iran has even made the decision to use its nuclear program to build a weapon?

3. Will the Israelis launch a military strike against Iran?

….read it all HERE

Herbert E. Meyer served during the Reagan administration as special assistant to the director of Central Intelligence and vice chairman of the CIA’s National Intelligence Council.  He is author of How to Analyze Information and The Cure for Poverty.

 


test-php-789