US citizens twist slowly, slowly in the wind as cap and trade scam is advanced by convicted stock swindler George Soros and US government

"Their headline goal is to raise $30bn (£20bn) a year immediately and $100bn a year by 2020, ostensibly "to enable developing countries to adapt to climate change."...

• (Most Americans don't know about this because US media does not report it).

All based on the criminal lie that excess CO2 is a catastrophic and immediate danger to life, is the fault of evil US citizens who therefore must pay billions in punishment yearly, sacrificing their lives, their families and their sovereignty.

• "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.... “That’s why financial types like me like it -- because there are
• financial opportunities.”

Soros convicted in France 2002. Fined for illegal manipulation of markets in Hungary, March 2009 (original Budapest Times article is blocked at the moment). Fined by Belarus in 1997 for currency violations.

• EUReferendum: "But as to the "agenda", this has nothing to do with science or even climate change.

The climate change scare is merely a front used to conceal on the one hand and, on the other, to legitimise a far more sinister movement which has at its root politics, power and money. And its agenda might have suffered a few setbacks and some delays, but it is essentially intact. An illustration of that – which also serves as an illustration of how little we have actually achieved in hard, concrete terms – comes with

• a report in The Guardian of a UK initiative, led by climate change secretary Ed Miliband.

Offered to us in glowing terms under the headline, "Britain brandishes olive branch to restart global climate change talks", we are told that Miliband: "concedes ground and offers to sign new Kyoto treaty in unilateral

• attempt to heal rift between rich and poor countries."

That, actually, is the muppet version of what is happening, designed to invoke the feel-good factor in the warmists.

• A better description is that hard politics have resumed, aimed at recovering ground lost at Copenhagen,
• and building on the few – largely unrecognised – successes that the negotiators took away with them.

When the report is stripped of the fluff, we find that Miliband is paving the way to get the Kyoto treaty protocols back on track for agreement in Mexico later this year, as part of an international treaty. ...

• This move comes alongside a meeting between Gordon Brown and "billionaire financier"
• George Soros, Obama's economic adviser Larry Summers, economist Lord Nicholas Stern and other finance ministers.

In parallel, they were working on stitching up the financial package which is so central to the real agenda.

• Their headline goal is to raise $30bn (£20bn) a year immediately and $100bn a year by 2020, ostensibly
• "to enable developing countries to adapt to climate change."

Whatever mechanisms are eventually agreed, however, of one thing there can be absolute certainty.

• Very little of the money allocated to this cause will ever reach its stated destination.

As with the current aid programme, most of it will be soaked up by banks, finance houses, investors and brokers, in fees and commissions.

• Huge amounts will line the pockets of governments in the recipient countries, and NGOs will grow fat and rich.

The mechanisms currently under consideration are six-fold, intended to raise an initial sum of $1 trillion (with much more to come).

• These include: a levy on all international aviation and shipping; enlarging existing carbon cap-and-trade markets; imposing a "Robin Hood"-type tax on all financial transactions; and using the
• International Monetary Fund's special drawing rights.

Somewhere in there is also an extension and expansion of the (scandal ridden UN) CDM scheme, and the completion of the first-stage financial package for REDD. The worst of this is that, to be implemented – even if on a phased basis – none of these measures need popular approval or legislative assent, other than the introduction of

• cap and trade in the US which, despite reports to the contrary, is still going ahead. Almost all the
• enabling mechanisms are already in place.

The danger – the very great danger – is that the sceptics who believe they are winning, and the many who believe that this is about science, and even global warming,

• are failing to understand what is going on, right under their noses. So far, we haven't laid a glove on them."

by EUReferendum, 4/1/10, "Depressing" via Tom Nelson

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23,000 private sector jobs "unexpectedly" lost in March

• Big gains were mistakenly projected.

(Reuters) - "Private employers unexpectedly shed jobs in March, dampening hopes about the strength of the recovery two days before the more closely watched government payrolls report.

• In addition, U.S. Midwest business activity expanded less than expected in March while a gauge of New York City business conditions fell, separate reports showed on Wednesday.

U.S. private employers cut 23,000 jobs in March, missing expectations for an increase in jobs, but the decline was slightly less than the losses in February, according to the data by a payroll processing company.

• "It throws a little cold water on the idea we were going to be adding jobs in March, which is a little disappointing. People thought finally this might be the month," said John Canally, investment strategist and economist for LPL Financial in Boston....

The median of estimates from 35 economists surveyed by Reuters for the ADP Employer Services report, jointly developed with Macroeconomic Advisers LLC,

• was for a rise of 40,000 private-sector jobs this month."...

"Private sector cuts jobs in March," 3/31/10 ********

• Seeking the end of capitalism above all as expressed by Bolivia's president:

12/17/09: "AMY GOODMAN: You spoke yesterday here at the Bella Center (in Copenhagen) and said we cannot end global warming without ending capitalism. What did you mean?

• PRESIDENT EVO MORALES: [translated] Capitalism is the worst enemy of humanity. Capitalism—and I’m speaking about irrational development—policies of unlimited industrialization are what destroys the environment.... So as long as we don’t review or revise those policies, it’s impossible to attend to humanity and life."...

"Bolivian President Evo Morales on Climate, Copenhagen, and Capitalism-The End of Capitalism," Democracy Now

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21 dead babies found on Communist Chinese riverbank-depravity, cash

• "Xu Li said that the hospital did not have anything to do with dumping the bodies along the river."This was done by the two morgue workers without the knowledge of the hospital," she said.

As for the workers' motive, she said, "It may have something to do with money."

• She said that it would cost more to care for the remains if the workers had followed hospital regulations. "...

Reference: "Dead babies found along China river bank," ABC News by Chito Romana, 3/31

• ""As I've always said, I consider baseball a social institution."" Bud Selig quote from article, "Selig to receive humanitarian award," 3/7/10, jsonline,

• MLB and Communist China note partnership agreement, 3/30/10, ap photo

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Harbinger Capital trims stake in NY Times at a loss

Harbinger Capital "sold 1,500,000 shares of NYT on March 26th at a price of $11.20. After the sales, Harbinger is left with 16,886,799 shares remaining. As per the amended 13D, we now see that this totals

• a 11.68% ownership stake in the company.

This is obviously a decrease from the last time when we saw their NYT stake in Harbinger's portfolio. These recent sales come after Falcone's hedge fund reduced their NYT stake back in December and in November as well. So, the selling continues at a very controlled pace....

• Yet again, Harbinger has sold shares at a loss. They initially acquired their stake between $15-20 per share almost two years ago when they invested over $500 million."...3/31 via Poynter.org/Romenesko

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Voices for 5 MLB opening day games, 2010

"ESPN follows its season opening Sunday Night Baseball telecast of Yankees vs. Red Sox with 5 games on Monday April 5th: ESPN - opening day (ET):

• St. Louis at Cincinnati, 1 p.m. on ESPN HD and ESPN3.com – Brent Musburger and Rick Sutcliffe;

• Cleveland at Chicago White Sox, 2 p.m. on ESPN2 – Dan Shulman, Aaron Boone and Chris Singleton

• Chicago Cubs at Atlanta, 4 p.m. on ESPN – Sean McDonough and Orel Hershiser;

• San Francisco at Houston, 7 p.m. on ESPN2 – Jon Miller and Joe Morgan

• Minnesota at Los Angeles Angels, 10 p.m. on ESPN2 – Steve Levy and Buck Showalter.

ESPN will also bring in new analyst Nomar Garciaparra on some of its Wednesday Night Baseball telecasts to work along with Rick Sutcliffe and play-by-play voice Dave O'Brien." from Dave Kohl via RadioDailyNews

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Owner of distressed Enron wind inventory, NBC TV shows episode with climate realist poisoned at breakfast...

• NBC parent GE bought defunct Enron wind turbine business in 2002. Enron (which used to be bad) was GE's parent company.

As described by Watts Up With That proprietor: "I’m sitting in my study and Law and Order came on on NBC 10PM PDT. They have a fictional crime episode regarding a

• climate scientist where stolen emails are mentioned in the first ten minutes, “climate deniers” are named, and it looks like they are interviewing a fictional GISS scientist in NYC.

Cap and Trade shenanigans with the word “scam” are mentioned too.

• Here’s a preview video from NBC and a new link to the whole episode:

• http://www.nbc.com/Law_and_Order/video/preview-brazil/1211024/

The preview doesn’t show the Climategate portion, apparently it starts out with a skeptic being

• poisoned at a conference breakfast.

It looks like the plot now turns toward some sort of custody battle. One of the fictional scientists looks like he was modeled after Gavin or maybe Romm.

• Here’s a line:

“We’re scientists, we deal with disagreements with emotional detachment and reason”."

• "Climategate now a Law and Order Episode," WUWT ***

Bob Costas and the NBC Climate disasters info-tacular, including catastrophizing about Mt. Kilimanjaro (disallowed by British courts in 2007*): 11/16/08: (Newsbusters): "Kicking off NBC's Global Alarmism Green Week during the halftime of Sunday Night Football, (Meredith) Vieira raised the spectre of the seas rising . . . 200 feet! Just one problem: Meredith's talk of 200 feet exaggerates the increase predicted by scientists by . . . literally hundreds of times. Vieira, speaking from Sydney, Australia, where she is focusing on water shortages, chatted with Bob Costas.

BOB COSTAS: "Where are Matt, Al and Ann this go-around?

MEREDITH VIEIRA: Matt [Lauer] is in Belize, he's off the coast at a place called the Blue Hole. It is the home to some of the most exotic marine life in the world, and all sorts of beautiful coral reefs and they're all being threatened because the water temperatures are rising.

Al [Roker] on the other hand is in Iceland looking at the glaciers which store most of our fresh water. And if they were to melt,

the oceans could rise at least 200 feet.

And our intrepid reporter Ann Curry, well she is climbing Mount Kilimanjaro as I speak....The snows of Mount Kilimanjaro are rapidly melting, and

that is threatening the people of Tanzania."

Now, it is apparently true that a melting of all the world's glaciers could result in a sea-level rise on the order Vieira mentioned. But by citing the statistic in the context of Green Week,

• viewers are misled into thinking that man-made factors are threatening such an outcome.
• Nothing could be further from the truth.

As per the United States Geological Survey:

Climate-related sea-level changes of the last century are very minor compared with the large changes in sea level that occur as climate oscillates between the cold and warm intervals that are part of the Earth's natural cycle of long-term climate change.

The same article mentions that "global sea level was about 125 meters below today's sea level at the last glacial maximum about 20,000 years ago." Virtually none of that rise, of course, can be attributable to man."......

If Bob Costas is serious, let him live in a one room shack without electricity. (ed)

• British Court ruled Inaccuracies in Al Gore Movie:

*"Gore: The disappearance of snow on Mt Kilimanjaro was expressly attributable to global warming.

Judge: This “specifically impressed” David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, but the

• scientific consensus was that it cannot be established that the recession of snows on

• Mt Kilimanjaro is mainly attributable to human-induced climate change."

GE Chairman Immelt:

"The interaction between government and business will change forever. In a reset economy, the government will be a regulator; and also an industry policy champion, a financier, and a key partner […] I think this environment presents an

• opportunity of a lifetime."...

3/4/09: "GE needs all the help it can get right now, with its stock hurtling closer towards $0 on a daily basis. The company obviously stands to benefit from infrastructure buildout, and from capturing its share of green (energy) dollars.

• The more wind-turbines we erect, the better for GE.

But there’s a nexus between its green ambitions and its finance unit in the form of a new venture called Greenhouse Gas Services, which will facilitate the trade of carbon tax credits."...Carbon Offsets Daily

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The Melk-man now delivers as a Brave

Melky Cabrera scores in the first inning Yankees-Braves in Buena Vista, 3/30/10, reuters, Posada on left

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Switch pitcher custom made glove

Yankee switch pitcher Pat Venditte with custom made glove today in Buena Vista before game with Braves. Glove has 2 thumbs. reuters photo

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Neil Best gathers Steve Phillips to join Mike Francesa once a week

Neil Best Watchdog: "I wasn't listening, but from what I gather Mike Francesa said earlier today that

• Steve Phillips would be joining him once a week to talk baseball." (on WFAN).

Update: I heard Phillips on with Francesa this afternoon (3/30), Francesa said Phillips would be on once a week, as Mr. Best suggested. (ed.)

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Chicago Climate Exchange ejected from HSBC Climate Index for loss of value

"The banking giant HSBC removed two companies involved in carbon trading from its Climate Change Index on Monday because they had lost too much value....

• “Carbon trading was the major loser from Copenhagen,” HSBC analysts said in their March 21010 Quarterly Index Review. “Cap and trade needs hard targets and binding rules – and Copenhagen delivered neither,” HSBC said.

The two companies ejected were Climate Exchange and Trading Emissions. Both companies are based in the Isle of Man and listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Climate Exchange owns the

• European Climate Exchange,
• the Chicago Climate Exchange and the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange.

The chairman of Trading Emissions, Neil Eckert, is also the chief executive of Climate Exchange....

• The revised rating by HSBC is another example of how expectations for carbon trading, also known as “cap-and-trade,” have diminished over the past year--...

HSBC said those disappointments were reflected in the value of the companies reliant on carbon trading; the companies HSBC removed from the index had

• failed to reach the minimum market capitalization of $400 million."...

"HSBC ejects carbon traders from index," by James Kanter , 3/29/10, NY Times, Green Inc., via Tom Nelson (party hat added by editor of this blog)

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Communist China executes more people than rest of world combined

BBC article, 3/29/10, graph from Amnesty International

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Sunday night Yankee-Red Sox season opener blacked out in some ESPN2 areas covered by YES Network

"The ESPN2 telecast of major league baseball’s opener, matching the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox on Sunday night at Fenway Park,

• will be blacked out in the Capital Region (Albany).

The game will be available on the YES Network, a situation that may disappoint Red Sox fans who would have preferred to watch a telecast not slanted toward the Yankees. (For my money, YES does a good job of not coming off as “homers,” but more of the talk naturally will be Yankees-related.)

An ESPN spokesman said that this particular Sunday night telecast is not exclusive, which means it must be blacked out in the home markets.

• By designating the game as such, ESPN will be able to show the both the Yankees and Red Sox five times on “Sunday Night Baseball” — five is the maximum —
• without having the opener count as one of the five."

Albany Times-Union, "Sorry, Red Sox fans, Sunday night's telecast is only on YES," by Pete Dougherty

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Climate advocates admit- it was never about climate, was really about global economy-Yale 360

As the US is doing now, with no rationale except 'we want a price on carbon' pursuing a decades long campaign to finally strangle the evil American middle class, Yale authors advocate dropping climate discussion, imposing painful measures on US citizens-as originally planned-- as if catastrophic man made global warming actually existed and CO2 was a danger.

• Because the important part is to transform the global economy.

"And understood in its proper role, as one of many reasons why we should

• decarbonize the global economy,

climate science can even help contribute to the case for taking such action.

• But so long as environmentalists continue

• to demand that climate science drive the
• transformation

• of the global energy economy,

neither the science, nor efforts to address climate change, will be well served."...

• from The Hill.com by Ben Geman, "Green think tank tells environmentalists: leave climate science behind," 3.29.10
• Essay on Yale environment 360,"Freeing energy policy from the climate change debate," by Nordhaus and Shellenberger. via the Drudge Report

Among comments to post at the Hill:

• "These gentlemen have recognized the failure of a science-based approach, inasmuch as the facts did not support their arguments. Instead, I believe, they are actually recommending abandoning research-based analysis to sell their agenda
• without any rational basis." Eminence Grise

"Do you really need any more proof than this? What this says in essence is that trying to use factual climate data to link green initiatives to non-existent global warming is hurting the economic goals of pseudo environmentalis ts.The real goal is not to mitigate adverse climatologicall y consequences but to initiate a global redistribution of wealth using the climate change movement as the catalyst of economic change.The lights are on and the roaches are beginning to scatter." Paul Magel

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Major backer now doubts validity of carbon trading

• HSBC report authors "question the validity of carbon trading as an investable theme":

"Following a Copenhagen summit where no legally binding treaty on carbon emissions was delivered, HSBC reports that its

• climate change sector has underperformed global equities, according to the latest quarterly review

of the HSBC Global Climate Change Index on 16th March 2010. The lack of a global agreement on emissions reduction has led the review's authors

• to question the

• validity of carbon trading as an investable theme.

Vijay Sumon, an index specialist at HSBC Global Research said: "A global agreement with specific hard targets

• would have allowed the carbon market to thrive; with none in place the general downward trend of carbon trading seen last year has accelerated.

• Post Copenhagen it has fallen over 28 per cent".

This turns up the heat on the development of alternative and renewable energy companies, such as those championed by BlackRock New Energy and Premier Renewable Energy investment trusts."

• Trustnet, 3.29.10, "Carbon Trading in Decline," by Martin Wood, "HSBC blames lack of agreement at Copenhagen for climate change related investments underperforming global equities."...via Tom Nelson

"So who will win in this battle to monetize

• the carbon?

• While science was killed as an innocent bystander,

• the UN with its desire for funding via international taxation vies

• with exchange corporations who want a piece of the

• new $300 billion market."...

HSBC Bank was in at the beginning of the carbon trading calamity, as promoted on the Chicago Climate Exchange page noting its part in Trading Emissions, PLC.

• George Soros climate pressure group Ceres.org presents HSBC climate alarmism.

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The idea of MLB.com as independent journalism

From Field of Schemes: "MLB.com really, really wants to be taken seriously as an independent news site — it's why every article carries the tagline

• "This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs,"

• hoping to convince you that despite being owned by MLB, it's real journalism.

And then it goes and runs an article like this one, headlined "New ballparks can mean new hope for teams." Oh, yeah? What's your evidence, reporter John Schlegel?"...3/25, "Anatomy of a snow job," by Neil diMause

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Michael Kay radio show to help launch ESPNNewYork.com

"To promote the launch of the ESPN New York site, ESPN Radio 1050 AM will air a two-hour special The Michael Kay Show Friday (April 2) to preview the 2010 Yankees and Mets seasons. The Web home for 1050 ESPN will be a section on ESPNNewYork.com."...

• Mediaweek, 3/28

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Chad Gaudin returns to Oakland A's

"Gaudin, 27, reached agreement Sunday with the A’s, according to major- league sources."...Ken Rosenthal, Fox Sports

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Florida unemployment record high 12.2%

"The latest unemployment numbers for Florida are out, and it’s not good news. The number of people without jobs statewide rose from 12 percent to

• 12.2 percent."...Miami-Dade 11.8% (Florida Marlins territory)

Tampa Bay Rays territory unemployment:

• Pinellas County 12.6
• Hillsborough County 12.7
• Pasco County 14.3

Reference: "Florida's jobless rate reaches record 12.2 percent," 3/25 Bay News 9.com, from ap

• Reference: "Florida's jobless rate reaches new record," 3/27/10, Central Florida News 13

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'Adverse relationship between professional sports and health of the planet'--carbon trading pitch to NHL player

Boston Bruins' Andrew "Ference’s awareness of the

• adverse relationship between professional sports and the health of the planet

began when he joined the Calgary Flames in 2003 and had ongoing conversations with well-known environmental activist Dr. David Suzuki."...More than 500 NHL players were steered into Gold Standard carbon offsets by David Suzuki). (Suzuki is not a climate scientist. He has a PhD in zoology, undergraduate degree in biology) ed..

• 11/15/09: "The Suzuki Foundation suggested Gold Standard carbon offsets — one of many certified standards of quality — which are being purchased for the NHLPA through Montreal-based not-for-profit Planetair....***

Robert Redford: "We have to go to sports."

• "It was at a 2003 meeting of the NRDC board at Sundance that actor and conservationist Robert Redford first devised this new strategy.

• "We have to go to sports," Redford said.

• He told members in attendance that sports was the new opiate of the people, that it was a prime reason masses weren't revolting in the street. At the same time, sports provided a unique opportunity to connect to nontraditional allies, who might adopt a greener attitude.

"We help the leagues, and at the same time use them as leverage with companies that were not responsive," (NRDC's Allen) Hershkowitz said. ..."But we ask, 'How can we get you rich while advancing environmental efforts?' And these are changes that can't be rolled back by an uncooperative administration or president."

• (Bud) Selig embraced the alliance. ...

The NRDC is now working with the NBA, NHL and U.S. Tennis Association. The nonprofit organization has been contacted by the NFL, MLS and PGA. Athletes infamous for their big cars and substantial lifestyles are being recruited to the cause of environmentalism, which is good for anyone's public image....

• Tonight at Fenway, (4/08) the president of NRDC, John Adams, will throw out the first pitch.

A public service video, narrated by Redford and co-sponsored by MLB, will be shown."...

• from NY Daily News, 4/21/08, "Shea, Meadowlands among facilities helping spread green message," by Filip Bondy

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Richard Gere at The Boss for Tigers-Yankee game

Top Gere and Damon, reuters, middle Reggie, Jim Leyland and Gere, ap bottom Girardi, Gere, Damon ap, 3/28/10. I heard the announcers say Gere's young son, Homer, is a pitcher.

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Expanded Cubs programming on WGN 720 am

"WGN-AM 720 confirmed today it is dropping "Sports Central," its 28-year-old sports-talk show, and redeploying longtime host David Kaplan as its "sports insider," a role that will include serving as primary host of an expanded "Cubs 10th Inning" postgame show....

• Kaplan's "sports insider" job comes with an "intense focus on the Cubs beat," the team's broadcasts long established as a centerpiece for listeners and station revenue....

Besides his postgame responsibilities, Kaplan will host a new weekend show, "Cubs Insider"; a pregame feature for all home-game broadcasts called "Cubs Underground" and an interview segment that will air through the week called "60 Seconds With ..." "

• from Chicago Tribune by Phil Rosenthal, 3/25/10, "WGN recasts Kaplan, gives Laski Sports Central Slot" via RadioDailyNews

Fans remember Tribune ownership of the Cubs

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Casualties in loss of evening programming on XM MLB Home Plate to MLB Network tv

The following comment appeared after an Albany Times-Union account of MLB TV Network taking over evening programming on XM 175 Home Plate, Sirius 210:

• " Pete,

1. It’s Joe Castellano, former Saints pbp announcer. The MLB Network Radio eliminated my show! After 5 years, Sirius/XM let me go so they could simulcast a TV broadcast! Can you believe that? Awful!

   Comment by Joe Castellano — March 27th, 2010 @ 1:30 am

2. @Joe: So sorry to hear that. Your show was a good listen for XM subscribers.

   I don’t understand this trend toward simulcasting TV shows. All is seems to accomplish for radio listeners is the punctuate the fact that you don’t have TV screens in your car. Anything to save a buck, I suppose.

   Comment by Pete Dougherty, Staff writer — March 27th, 2010 @ 8:51 am"

Albany Times-Union: "Major League Baseball is rebranding the MLB Home Plate channel on XM Radio as “MLB Network Radio.”

• That’s all fine, but the sport’s marketing remains in the stone ages, as evidenced by the fact that it won’t allow subscribers of Sirius — which merged last year with XM — to carry the broadcasts. All other major sports properties contracted to one of the satellite services have been aired on the other except Major League Baseball, which, of course, thinks it should get more money."...Pete Dougherty

Commenters on XMFan.com discuss, most enthusiastic appears to be host Casey Stern who did not lose his job.

• "Major League Baseball and MLB Network announced today that MLB will be rebranding the MLB Home Plate channel on Sirius XM Radio as MLB Network Radio

• effective April 4, Opening Day of the regular season.

The partnership will see a considerable amount of MLB Network television programming aired on Home Plate including MLB Tonight....

• MLB Network Radio will be heard on the same channels as MLB Home Plate was aired on prior (XM 175/ Sirius 210).

The move is the first vertical growth of MLB Network, which was launched on Jan 1 of 2009."...from Biz of Baseball

• More goodies in Bud Selig's prize locker.

North Korean army like MLB walks in lockstep to one voice. photo via no caption needed, ap

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Organized carbon crime succeeds on pitch of 'doing good for the environment'-Reuters

• "US cap and trade is a glittering, trillion-dollar prize on which all the warmists' long-term plans rely. They are not going to give it up without a struggle." EUReferendum

The climate industry rests on the criminally false assumption that catastrophic man caused climate change (global warming) exists, and is largely caused by evil US citizens who therefore must pay billions in reparations. Money must be immediate and continue indefinitely to enrich corrupt UN grifters, brutal equatorial dictators, billionaire hedge fund thugs and various "stakeholders" at the Chicago Climate Exchange. We must surrender our lives, our families and our sovereignty without complaint to unelected imperialist global thugs. The best of this organized crime is computerized carbon trading already exceeding predictions for rampant fraud and theft.

• Among players in following Reuters carbon fraud report: Gold Standard Foundation (logo of imperialist WWF on web page); (Background on Gold Standard: More than 500 NHL players were steered into Gold Standard carbon offsets by David Suzuki),* preying on emotions of the weak wanting to feel they're 'doing good,' Carbon Trust Registry, (taxpayer funds from the UK climate bureau (DECC)), VCS (Voluntary Carbon Standards)

Reuters: "* Firm accused of carbon fraud still operating despite warning

Singapore, 3/26 (Reuters): "A firm accused of defrauding Australian investors of A$3.5 million ($3.2 million) in a carbon investment scam and blacklisted by the nation's securities regulator

• is still operating and may face legal claims.

The case (of Western Field Holdings) risks denting the reputation of the unregulated voluntary carbon offset market,

• which has been damaged in the past by allegations of fraud and double-counting,

although market players

• said

its small size meant it wouldn't have a big impact.

Since mid-2009 more than 100 people have told the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) they have lost money after being duped by an aggressive telemarketing scheme run by WesternField Holdings Inc.

The state-backed ACCC has labelled the firm's carbon investment offerings a scam that

• preys on investors' desire to do something good for the environment.

WesternField's website (www.western-field.com) lists a Tokyo business address,

• a string of emission reduction projects in Asia since 2001,

• an impressive line-up of managers and consultants,

• and a prestigious environment award in 2004.

However, the organisation that gives out the annual award didn't start doing so until 2006.

• A check of WesternField's weblink shows the domain name was created in May 2009 and internet searches show no record of the company prior to 2009. The management office of the Tokyo tower listed as the firm's address has no record of them.

WesternField describes itself as a leading developer of high quality greenhouse gas reduction projects.

"It is increasingly clear this is a well-constructed scam using a fake website and

• claiming fake links to legitimate organisations

or environmental standards and where the ultimate location is very difficult to determine," ACCC deputy chairman Peter Kell told Reuters by telephone.

• "If you're an investor who's heart is in the right place,

• who wants to make an environmentally friendly investment,

• then these sorts of offerings can look very tempting," he added.

The ACCC said potential investors are cold-called by people with North American, British or New Zealand accents and

• promised large returns for short-term investments in carbon credits.

Investors could view their carbon "investment certificates" through an independent website registered to

• CTR Limited (carbontrustregistry.com), purported to be in Hong Kong.

Calls to the number listed on the website were unanswered.

• Kell said some investors have complained that they have been unable to obtain their certificates and that requests to sell their investments or get their money back were ignored.

Investors were asked to send money to a Taiwan bank account....

During a series of calls to WesternField's Japanese telephone number this week, a man named Jay Cutler told Reuters that founder and CEO Stephen Westernfield was either in the United States, in meetings or had left for the day....

• "We've never cold-called a potential investor yet. We've engaged on a number of occasions independent marketing firms who have,
• canvassed I guess is the right word,
• potential investors," said Cutler.

He said investors are told that they are not issued with certificates.

• "The holdings are held electronically

• with an independent body
• the Carbon Trust Registry."

Carbon Trust says on its website that it is a registry for credits issued by the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) Association,

• an industry-respected offset verifier.

But Jerry Seager, program manager for the association, told Reuters that

• Carbon Trust was not an authorised VCS registry."... *** (They still make the claim on their web site, 3/27/10) ed.

(continuing, Reuters): ""We are aware of this website and are taking legal advice," he said in an emailed response to questions.

• He added that he had not heard of WesternField and that they were not listed as project proponents for any VCS projects.

WesternField Holdings says it has completed a variety of clean-energy and forestry projects in Asia since 2001 that have been approved under VCS

• as well as the Gold Standard Foundation.

Gold Standard said it had not heard of WesternField either. It said the firm would face action from the foundation for any misuse of its brand. Cutler declined comment on the allegation.

• Grattan MacGiffin of MF Global, one of the largest brokers for voluntary offsets,
• said
• the case would not hurt the market, worth about $700 million in 2008...."...

"Firm accused of carbon scam may face legal claims," 3/26/10, by David Fogerty, Climate Change Correspondent, via Tom Nelson

• *11/15/09: "The Suzuki Foundation suggested Gold Standard carbon offsets — one of many certified standards of quality — which are being purchased for the NHLPA through Montreal-based not-for-profit Planetair....

(Andrew) Ference’s awareness of the

• adverse relationship between professional sports and the health of the planet

began when he joined the Calgary Flames in 2003 and had ongoing conversations with well-known environmental activist Dr. David Suzuki."...(Suzuki is not a climate scientist. He has a PhD in zoology, undergraduate degree in biology) ed..

• ***From Carbon Trust's web page 3/27: "Now, carbon market consumers have a secure, web-based system to create, verify, track, trade and retire Voluntary Carbon Units (V.C.U.’s) by managing the the entire process of the credit from beginning to end,"...

• "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.... “That’s why financial types like me like it -- because there are
• financial opportunities.”

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K-rod helping Ugie Urbina son at Mets complex

• K-rod with Juan Urbina, Ugie Urbina's son
• at Mets complex in Florida. 3/25/10 photo ny times

Ugie Urbina in jail for 14 years in Venezuela. Europress photo

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Castro pictured as swell guy at baseball game in Havana. And why not?

• Banner of brutal dictator Castro and his brother
• at Cuban baseball game, 3/16/10, reuters de la rosa

Angelos, Castro, Selig at a game in 1999 Singer Gloria Estefan leads anti-Castro march in Miami, 3/25/10 Cuban emergency room toilet used by patients and personnel, (item at end of page), via gateway

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WFAN holding its own in ratings-Neil Best

Neil Best Watchdog: "There is no question 1050 ESPN suffers from its less reliable signal. ESPN has flirted with acquiring an FM station, which could be a game-changer, but until it does it must live with the reality of not being a "clear channel."...

The station does many things well, including sports news reporting, aided by ESPN's trove of journalists and personalities,

• none of whom are allowed to appear on WFAN.

Still, the numbers are stuck. One particularly interesting period was January, when the

• Jets didn't make their players available to WFAN's Mike Francesa,

• yet he handily beat the team's flagship radio station.

The addition of Bonnie Bernstein to Michael Kay's afternoon show hasn't helped, and has created some awkward verbal traffic jams involving Kay, Bernstein and Don La Greca.

• I asked Dave Roberts, 1050's new general manager, about the chemistry on the Kay show. He said this:

"Overall we are pleased with the Michael Kay show, and the reason why we're pleased with it is when you have someone the strength of Michael Kay, it's pretty easy to build a team around him."...

• Here are some ratings numbers, which measure the percentage of the audience among men ages 25 to 54 for each station in mornings, midday and afternoons in recent months:

Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.:

• WFAN: 5.7 percent in February, 7.4 in January, 6.4 in December.
• WEPN (1050's official call letters): 1.7, 2.5, 2.5

Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.:

• WFAN: 5.5 percent in February, 6.6 in January, 6.2 in December
• WEPN: 1.5, 2.0, 2.1

Monday through Friday, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.:

• WFAN: 5.7 percent in February, 7.1 in January, 6.4 in December
• WEPN: 2.3, 2.8, 3.1

"WFAN still rules ratings race," Neil Best Watchdog, Newsday, 3/26/10

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Less information available about a particular reporter means more doubt about his analysis

"Even those journalists on TV whose face you did see — you couldn’t click on a link to see their background, disclosures, or why they might be qualified to be reporting on a certain topic.

• Now you can go on the Web and find out.

• The less you can find on them, the more skeptical you are of their analysis.

On the Web, where social connections reign supreme, trust and truth matter more than objectivity.

• For this reason, journalism schools in the way they are currently comprised don’t work. For my money, one of the better business journalists to emerge in the coming years probably went to business school and interned at a multinational firm instead of a newspaper.

In the Church of Journalism, this was deemed an ugly “conflict of interest”;

• For new content creation on the social Web, this is viewed as great experience and credibility

• provided it’s disclosed.

This will have great benefits. If more of the financial journalists worked in finance first, maybe they could have blown the whistle on certain practices before it was too late and we were plunged into a near-catastrophic recession.

• But this argument about expertise and credibility glosses over an important question: Is teaching people how to create quality content important? I think it is, but that’s something that should occur in elementary school education and in high school, utilizing the variety of tools the Web offers and making sure kids know how to write and express themselves in a clear way."...

Journalism schools were made to serve the Church of Journalism and the vanity contained within it (“Oh, I’m a journalist actually.”). The foundations of that cathedral have been shaken to the core because there is less money to validate its existence and shield the inadequacies of some of the people in it."...

• from "What the reader elite means for journalism schools," The Lynch Blog, 3/25/10, via Poynter.org/Romenesko ***

Some have their backgrounds 'scrubbed'. Then they can say, well, you can't prove such and such about me so you lose. As Mr. Lynch states, the censored or 'clean slate' puts everything about a 'journalist' in doubt. Not to say there isn't a lot of false information about people on the internet, but the absence of much relevant historical data is something different. Especially when the only evidence of a reporter's trustworthiness are his own claims and those in whose interest it would be to defend him. That is why such individuals should not be in the business of conferring immortality and multi-million dollar paydays.

• For example, the BBWAA decides the AL Cy Young Award with only 28 voters. It is an award that confers immortality and often great financial gain. I sent an email to its long-time secretary-treasurer Jack O'Connell asking for the backgrounds of the voters. He informed me that information is secret:

Friday, July 21, 2006

• Jack O'Connell of BBWAA replies to my email

I sent an email to Mr. O'Connell asking for the names of the 28 persons who voted for the 2005 AL Cy Young Award & their professional affiliations. Here is his reply: (July 21, 2006)

• "Ms. Mullen,
• This information is available to BBWAA members only.
• Jack O'Connell" ****

I appreciate his prompt reply to my request, but I need this simple information. I've already asked the HOF & they said they have nothing to do with the Cy Young Award. For an award like this where such a small number of selected voters determines an immortal and often financial outcome, it is important to know the bio and resume of voters, their voting history, and bio and resume of the person who appointed them. The public also needs to know disciplinary history of voters, ie which voters have been admonished or penalized (such as temporary suspension of voting rights) and all details involved.

• If you claim you are the 'conscience' or 'guardian' of the game, that's nice, but who guards you (other than Bud Selig)?

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