As Breitbart and Loesch Cover Their Tracks, Professors Cleared By University Officials
May 11, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media You may recall this video. It was the first of two posted on Big Government’s site two weeks ago alleging that UMSL Professor Don Giljum and UMKC Professor Judy Ancel were teaching impressionable young college students how to become union thugs, which they were not. I posted the unedited versions (as did Media Matters) proving that once again, the videos had been edited to give the appearance that these professors were saying something exactly opposite of that which was alleged by Breitbart and Co. Monday UMSL published this statement absolving Giljum and Ancel of any and all wrongdoing : The excerpts that were made public showing the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) instructor Don Giljum and students as well as the UMKC instructor and students were definitely taken out of context , with their meaning highly distorted through splicing and editing from different times within a class period and across multiple class periods. If this were a fair and just world, these professors would receive a profuse apology from Dana Loesch, Andrew Breitbart, their respective universities, and Don Giljum would be invited to rescind his resignation with a public invitation to teach the very same class again next semester. But it isn’t a fair and just world, so here’s what happened instead. BigGovernment published a “confession” of sorts called a “first-hand account” from Phillip Christofanelli, a young Ron Paul devotee , ardent member of the St. Louis chapter of Young Americans for Liberty (YAF), was a Ron Paul delegate in 2008 , and has a past association with another James O’Keefe project . That project, like every single one O’Keefe has been involved with, was also a hoax , intended to embarrass the university and paint the Young Americans for Liberty as discriminated-against victims . (For Christofanelli’s full first-hand account of the “Gulag” fiasco, please see page 12 of the March 2010 issue of Young American Revolution ) At the beginning of Mr. Christofanelli’s “first-hand account” of the professor fiasco, he says this: Since that time, an organization known as Insurgent Visuals has released videos of the class, which have gained considerable media attention . To be clear, I am not Insurgent Visuals, nor am I associated with them. I did not edit any videos or put them online. I did, however, download the original videos off of the class website and give them out in their entirety to a number of my friends in order to obtain other opinions on the propriety of what occurred in the class, and of the steps I should take moving forward. Ah, yes. The mysterious “Insurgent Visuals”. Who are they? Was there a way to find out if there was any association with the peripatetic James O’Keefe? As it turns out, the answer to that last question is…yes. Here is a screenshot of a cached Blogspot blog , now deleted. enlarge Insurgent Visuals as cached by Google As you can see, there are three writers listed. James O’Keefe, Bruce Bronson, and “.”. The last name was the name posts were made under, but it’s clear that it was just a generic posting account and little more, which is common on blogspot blogs with multiple contributors. I don’t know who Bruce Bronson is, but here’s O’Keefe’s profile : enlarge On the current Insurgent Visuals website, there are two listings that seem to correspond to the blogspot users. First, Bruce B. – Kansas City, MO: Bruce has been involved with business for several years, and has always done journalism on the side. He’s been through several training programs and workshops on journalism and is ready to put his training into action. And then Jim O. – Columbus, OH: Jim is a student at a major state school in Ohio. In his spare time he helps edit copy and help with social networking platforms. Poor little Jim O. seems to be the dude at the bottom of the totem pole, with a blurry image. Here, let’s compare a known photo of James O’Keefe with Jim O’s picture. enlarge Jim O. enlarge And yes, James O’Keefe has a more professional looking website to correspond with his efforts to grab some tax-exempt dollars for his hack jobs over at Project Veritas . Still. There seem to be a lot of coincidental parallels. The original URL for Insurgent Visuals was insurgentvisuals.blogspot.com. Here is their mission statement as originally published : The mission of Insurgent Visuals is to educate society, motivate others to act within society, and take actions in society that demonstrate the need for change, and specifically what those needed changes are. We are unequivocally pro-life and anti-state. Here is the mission statement as published on Insurgent Visuals’ current website : We are truthtellers using the medium of video to convey core values. Anchored on those ideas, we tell stories through the use of visuals. Our videos are edited, but never out of context. We are political, but apartisan. We are radical progressives correcting wrongs, and we also eschew beltway. The only corrective to journalistic malpractice is the use of truth by the people to tell the truths hidden by elites. We hope to be part of that correction. The original blog, as cached, had 8 posts in 2008 and 2 posts in 2009. One of those posts was entitled Links for Video Editing. Another was entitled ” Article from James: how to use documentaries for social change “, which linked to this article on MediaRights.org . Among the bullet points given as advice to aspiring documentarians in that article: Be aware of opportunities to change public policy. Use the documentary to get media attention. I note, however, that it did not suggest being dishonest in how one edited events and video. Other interesting posts include this one, where the poster notes his favorite psychological studies . The first one listed is the Stanford Prison Experiment , where some students playing the role of prison officers became very authoritarian and subjected their prisoners to torture. The second is the Milgram Experiment concerning obedience to authority. You be the judge. Are Jim O and James O’Keefe one and the same, and did they team up with their previous partner, Phillip Christofanelli to perpetrate another hoax on another university where Christofanelli just happened to be taking a class on unions, something that must have been incredibly antithetical to his worldview and perspective? Reading Christofanelli’s first hand account is a little like reading the O’Keefe style edits, only in text instead of video. Perhaps it’s a match made in heaven. Oh, I almost forgot this. On one of Christofanelli’s YAF blog posts, he says he has a blog here . However, there aren’t any posts on that blog, but it does have one follower, Greg Bishop . Coincidentally, Bishop happens to be a media guy. From his profile: Born and raised in the Mid-West to a large family with strong principles and deeper values. A life long student and activist encouraging free thought in all venues. Broadcast producer, anchor, editor etc., a true multi-talented media technician with consistent production and continued education. Christofanelli and Bishop appear to be connected via libertarian conservative principles, and ties to Springfield, IL. Finally, let’s remember CNN commentator Dana Loesch’s involvement in this shameful smear of two university professors who were simply doing what they had done many times before, and should be doing long into the future. The fact that Loesch is being dishonest should not be news to any readers of this blog, but this case is substantially different from the norm for a couple of reasons. First, it’s different because the instructors targeted by the smear campaign have already received numerous threats based on the Right wing’s deceptive attacks. And second, in this case, Loesch has unquestionably been the leader in pushing out the manufactured lies. Her role in this story is similar to the role Breitbart played in the Shirley Sherrod story. Be sure to listen to the clips from Loesch’s radio show over there to see how she continued to stoke the story even after she knew the video had been edited. So let’s put in context what Loesch is saying. She is admitting she had access to the full videos. Yet she is amazingly pretending that they were not edited out of context. And yet, CNN continues to put her on the air, knowing full well that Loesch’s native tongue is lies, just as Brietbart and O’Keefe’s are. After the original videos were pulled, they crafted a narrative without ever republishing them. They could do this because the videos were out in public view long enough to get traction before they were pulled. It took me awhile to find the videos again, but now I’ve saved it here so we have a full record of what they tried to do. It is my fondest hope that these professors exercise all options available to them to seek restitution from Breitbart, Loesch and their accomplices. In the meantime, we at least have a full record of what it is they tried to pull over on everyone else.
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Thousands in Italian capital take non-existent earthquake prediction seriously and escape city It may be down to the beatific presence of Pope Benedict XVI, or perhaps Italy’s tectonic plates balked at the idea of destroying the Pantheon, the Colosseum and St Peter’s basilica in one fell swoop – but, as yet, the Eternal City remains untouched by a huge earthquake predicted by a self-taught seismologist . Raffaele Bendandi, the “earthquake prophet” who died more than 30 years ago, forecast a devastating tremor that would tear through Italy’s capital on 11 May. Italy had already felt 22 small earthquakes by midday, a figure that is perfectly normal for the quake-prone country. But Rome’s espresso-drinking, Vespa-driving, hand-waving activities continued as normal. The threat had been taken seriously by thousands of Romans. In Rome’s Chinatown, many storefronts were shuttered, and La Repubblica reported that requests from the capital’s public employees for a day off in order to escape the city were 18% higher than for the same day in 2011. Education officials expected school attendance to be down by a fifth. Bendandi, who was knighted by fascist leader Benito Mussolini, is said to have predicted several disasters, including the Friuli quake of 1976, which claimed almost 1,000 lives. Despite assurance from the head of a foundation set up in Bendandi’s honour in his hometown near Bologna, that the seismologist had never pin-pointed a date for the earthquake, Romans still headed for the country. A survey of farm hotels outside the capital indicated that business was up as the city’s inhabitants made their preemptive escape. “I can state with absolute certainty that in Raffaele Bendandi’s papers, there is no prediction of an earthquake in Rome on 11 May 2011,” Paola Lagorio, the president of the Osservatorio Geoficico Comunale of Faenza, said last month. “The date is not there. The place is not there.” Italy’s Civil Protection department looked to reassure people with an information pack online that stressed that quakes cannot be accurately predicted and that Rome isn’t at particular risk. Italy Natural disasters and extreme weather Geology Europe guardian.co.uk
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Prosecution says Levi Bellfield made early hours visit to flat near where Milly disappeared and later stripped the bedding A former nightclub bouncer accused of the kidnap and murder of schoolgirl Milly Dowler paid a visit in the middle of the night to his rented flat near where she was last seen, stripped the bedding and removed the mattress, a court heard. Just hours after the 13-year-old vanished, Levi Bellfield, 43, who was house-sitting with his girlfriend in west London, returned to their empty rented flat in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, which overlooked the road where Milly was last seen alive, a jury was told. His girlfriend awoke between 3am and 4am to find him getting dressed, and he said he was going to the flat in Collingwood Place because he “wanted a lie-in”, said prosecutor Britain Altman QC. “So why return to Collingwood Place in the dead of night? To walk the dog? To lie in? “If the prosecution is right – that he abducted and killed Milly Dowler – then he had to dispose of her body and clean up,” Altman told the Old Bailey trial. Milly vanished shortly after 4pm on 21 March 2002, while walking home from Walton station. Her naked and badly decomposed body was found six months later in undergrowth in Yateley Heath Wood, Hampshire, 25 miles away. Phone records showed that during his late night visit Bellfield had switched off his mobile, the court heard. “His phone records show that his phone fell silent or was unreachable for almost nine-and-a-half hours between 23.02 that Thursday night and 08.26 on the Friday morning, ample time to make the journey from Walton to the deposition site in Yateley Heath Wood and to begin the clean-up,” said Altman. Bellfield, who was convicted in 2008 of the murders of two women and the attempted murder of a third, denies the kidnap and murder of Milly, whose real name was Amanda. He also denies the attempted abduction of Rachel Cowles, then 11, the previous day, on 20 March, 2002. The jury has heard that Bellfield, his girlfriend Emma Mills, and their two children, were renting the ground-floor flat in Collingwood Place, which had views of Station Avenue, where Milly was last seen, but at the time of her disappearance the couple were house-sitting for a friend, and the flat was empty. On the day Milly vanished, Mills had been unable to contact Bellfield because his phone was switched off and he returned to the house they were staying in West Drayton, between 10.30pm and 11pm. She noticed he had changed his clothes, and thought he must have returned to the flat in Walton, where his clothes were kept, said Altman. She could tell he had been drinking, but he was not drunk, and she was suspicious he had been with another woman, the jury heard. At about 3am-4am, Mills awoke to find Bellfield getting dressed. “She asked him what he was doing. He answered ‘I’m going back to the flat , ’cause I’m going to have a lay-in’,” said Altman. He left, taking the couple’s staffordshire bull terrier with him. Altman said the jury might ask themselves “What it was that was so important that in the middle of the night he decided to get up and drive over to Walton” – a distance of 13.7 miles, taking around 27 minutes. “You can be sure that it was no lie-in.” Milly’s uncle, Brian Gilbertson, was out in the early hours and was searching for his niece in the area of the Collingwood Place flats when saw a man with a dog not on a lead. He described the man as “thick set, stocky build”, white, aged between 30 and 40, who “walked with an air of confidence”. The jury could conclude that was Bellfield, said Altman. The next day Malcolm Ward, who knew Bellfield, agreed to help him move a king-size mattress from the flat, for which he was paid £15. “According to Ward, that day Bellfield was not his usual self and was quieter than normal,” the jury heard. When Mills returned to the flat after Milly’s disappearance, she found the bed stripped, with “no duvet cover, sheet or pillowcases”, with Bellfield claiming their pet staffordshire bull terrier had had an “accident” and he had “chucked it all”, said Altman. The court heard CCTV images showed no trace of Milly walking down Station Avenue, although a fellow pupil had seen her shortly after 4pm. The fact she was not on CCTV meant that she vanished within a very short time, and just yards from Collingwood Place. “If that evidence is accurate and reliable, then it means that Milly had to have been taken from that part of Station Avenue, right outside Collingwood Place, and right on the defendant’s doorstep,” said Brian Altman, QC, prosecuting. Milly, a pupil at Heathside School, Weybridge, where her mother, Sally, taught maths, had boarded her train at Weybridge, but got off at Walton to buy chips at a cafe with friends, instead of continuing on to Hersham station, her usual route, the jury was told. The jury has been told that within two years of Milly’s murder, Bellfield murdered Marsha McDonnell, 19, and Amelie Delagrange, 22, by striking them over the head with a blunt instrument, and attempted to murder Kate Sheedy, then 18, by deliberately running her over in a car. The trial continues. Milly Dowler Crime Caroline Davies guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Prosecution says Levi Bellfield made early hours visit to flat near where Milly disappeared and later stripped the bedding A former nightclub bouncer accused of the kidnap and murder of schoolgirl Milly Dowler paid a visit in the middle of the night to his rented flat near where she was last seen, stripped the bedding and removed the mattress, a court heard. Just hours after the 13-year-old vanished, Levi Bellfield, 43, who was house-sitting with his girlfriend in west London, returned to their empty rented flat in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, which overlooked the road where Milly was last seen alive, a jury was told. His girlfriend awoke between 3am and 4am to find him getting dressed, and he said he was going to the flat in Collingwood Place because he “wanted a lie-in”, said prosecutor Britain Altman QC. “So why return to Collingwood Place in the dead of night? To walk the dog? To lie in? “If the prosecution is right – that he abducted and killed Milly Dowler – then he had to dispose of her body and clean up,” Altman told the Old Bailey trial. Milly vanished shortly after 4pm on 21 March 2002, while walking home from Walton station. Her naked and badly decomposed body was found six months later in undergrowth in Yateley Heath Wood, Hampshire, 25 miles away. Phone records showed that during his late night visit Bellfield had switched off his mobile, the court heard. “His phone records show that his phone fell silent or was unreachable for almost nine-and-a-half hours between 23.02 that Thursday night and 08.26 on the Friday morning, ample time to make the journey from Walton to the deposition site in Yateley Heath Wood and to begin the clean-up,” said Altman. Bellfield, who was convicted in 2008 of the murders of two women and the attempted murder of a third, denies the kidnap and murder of Milly, whose real name was Amanda. He also denies the attempted abduction of Rachel Cowles, then 11, the previous day, on 20 March, 2002. The jury has heard that Bellfield, his girlfriend Emma Mills, and their two children, were renting the ground-floor flat in Collingwood Place, which had views of Station Avenue, where Milly was last seen, but at the time of her disappearance the couple were house-sitting for a friend, and the flat was empty. On the day Milly vanished, Mills had been unable to contact Bellfield because his phone was switched off and he returned to the house they were staying in West Drayton, between 10.30pm and 11pm. She noticed he had changed his clothes, and thought he must have returned to the flat in Walton, where his clothes were kept, said Altman. She could tell he had been drinking, but he was not drunk, and she was suspicious he had been with another woman, the jury heard. At about 3am-4am, Mills awoke to find Bellfield getting dressed. “She asked him what he was doing. He answered ‘I’m going back to the flat , ’cause I’m going to have a lay-in’,” said Altman. He left, taking the couple’s staffordshire bull terrier with him. Altman said the jury might ask themselves “What it was that was so important that in the middle of the night he decided to get up and drive over to Walton” – a distance of 13.7 miles, taking around 27 minutes. “You can be sure that it was no lie-in.” Milly’s uncle, Brian Gilbertson, was out in the early hours and was searching for his niece in the area of the Collingwood Place flats when saw a man with a dog not on a lead. He described the man as “thick set, stocky build”, white, aged between 30 and 40, who “walked with an air of confidence”. The jury could conclude that was Bellfield, said Altman. The next day Malcolm Ward, who knew Bellfield, agreed to help him move a king-size mattress from the flat, for which he was paid £15. “According to Ward, that day Bellfield was not his usual self and was quieter than normal,” the jury heard. When Mills returned to the flat after Milly’s disappearance, she found the bed stripped, with “no duvet cover, sheet or pillowcases”, with Bellfield claiming their pet staffordshire bull terrier had had an “accident” and he had “chucked it all”, said Altman. The court heard CCTV images showed no trace of Milly walking down Station Avenue, although a fellow pupil had seen her shortly after 4pm. The fact she was not on CCTV meant that she vanished within a very short time, and just yards from Collingwood Place. “If that evidence is accurate and reliable, then it means that Milly had to have been taken from that part of Station Avenue, right outside Collingwood Place, and right on the defendant’s doorstep,” said Brian Altman, QC, prosecuting. Milly, a pupil at Heathside School, Weybridge, where her mother, Sally, taught maths, had boarded her train at Weybridge, but got off at Walton to buy chips at a cafe with friends, instead of continuing on to Hersham station, her usual route, the jury was told. The jury has been told that within two years of Milly’s murder, Bellfield murdered Marsha McDonnell, 19, and Amelie Delagrange, 22, by striking them over the head with a blunt instrument, and attempted to murder Kate Sheedy, then 18, by deliberately running her over in a car. The trial continues. Milly Dowler Crime Caroline Davies guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Prosecution says Levi Bellfield made early hours visit to flat near where Milly disappeared and later stripped the bedding A former nightclub bouncer accused of the kidnap and murder of schoolgirl Milly Dowler paid a visit in the middle of the night to his rented flat near where she was last seen, stripped the bedding and removed the mattress, a court heard. Just hours after the 13-year-old vanished, Levi Bellfield, 43, who was house-sitting with his girlfriend in west London, returned to their empty rented flat in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, which overlooked the road where Milly was last seen alive, a jury was told. His girlfriend awoke between 3am and 4am to find him getting dressed, and he said he was going to the flat in Collingwood Place because he “wanted a lie-in”, said prosecutor Britain Altman QC. “So why return to Collingwood Place in the dead of night? To walk the dog? To lie in? “If the prosecution is right – that he abducted and killed Milly Dowler – then he had to dispose of her body and clean up,” Altman told the Old Bailey trial. Milly vanished shortly after 4pm on 21 March 2002, while walking home from Walton station. Her naked and badly decomposed body was found six months later in undergrowth in Yateley Heath Wood, Hampshire, 25 miles away. Phone records showed that during his late night visit Bellfield had switched off his mobile, the court heard. “His phone records show that his phone fell silent or was unreachable for almost nine-and-a-half hours between 23.02 that Thursday night and 08.26 on the Friday morning, ample time to make the journey from Walton to the deposition site in Yateley Heath Wood and to begin the clean-up,” said Altman. Bellfield, who was convicted in 2008 of the murders of two women and the attempted murder of a third, denies the kidnap and murder of Milly, whose real name was Amanda. He also denies the attempted abduction of Rachel Cowles, then 11, the previous day, on 20 March, 2002. The jury has heard that Bellfield, his girlfriend Emma Mills, and their two children, were renting the ground-floor flat in Collingwood Place, which had views of Station Avenue, where Milly was last seen, but at the time of her disappearance the couple were house-sitting for a friend, and the flat was empty. On the day Milly vanished, Mills had been unable to contact Bellfield because his phone was switched off and he returned to the house they were staying in West Drayton, between 10.30pm and 11pm. She noticed he had changed his clothes, and thought he must have returned to the flat in Walton, where his clothes were kept, said Altman. She could tell he had been drinking, but he was not drunk, and she was suspicious he had been with another woman, the jury heard. At about 3am-4am, Mills awoke to find Bellfield getting dressed. “She asked him what he was doing. He answered ‘I’m going back to the flat , ’cause I’m going to have a lay-in’,” said Altman. He left, taking the couple’s staffordshire bull terrier with him. Altman said the jury might ask themselves “What it was that was so important that in the middle of the night he decided to get up and drive over to Walton” – a distance of 13.7 miles, taking around 27 minutes. “You can be sure that it was no lie-in.” Milly’s uncle, Brian Gilbertson, was out in the early hours and was searching for his niece in the area of the Collingwood Place flats when saw a man with a dog not on a lead. He described the man as “thick set, stocky build”, white, aged between 30 and 40, who “walked with an air of confidence”. The jury could conclude that was Bellfield, said Altman. The next day Malcolm Ward, who knew Bellfield, agreed to help him move a king-size mattress from the flat, for which he was paid £15. “According to Ward, that day Bellfield was not his usual self and was quieter than normal,” the jury heard. When Mills returned to the flat after Milly’s disappearance, she found the bed stripped, with “no duvet cover, sheet or pillowcases”, with Bellfield claiming their pet staffordshire bull terrier had had an “accident” and he had “chucked it all”, said Altman. The court heard CCTV images showed no trace of Milly walking down Station Avenue, although a fellow pupil had seen her shortly after 4pm. The fact she was not on CCTV meant that she vanished within a very short time, and just yards from Collingwood Place. “If that evidence is accurate and reliable, then it means that Milly had to have been taken from that part of Station Avenue, right outside Collingwood Place, and right on the defendant’s doorstep,” said Brian Altman, QC, prosecuting. Milly, a pupil at Heathside School, Weybridge, where her mother, Sally, taught maths, had boarded her train at Weybridge, but got off at Walton to buy chips at a cafe with friends, instead of continuing on to Hersham station, her usual route, the jury was told. The jury has been told that within two years of Milly’s murder, Bellfield murdered Marsha McDonnell, 19, and Amelie Delagrange, 22, by striking them over the head with a blunt instrument, and attempted to murder Kate Sheedy, then 18, by deliberately running her over in a car. The trial continues. Milly Dowler Crime Caroline Davies guardian.co.uk
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The wind turbine manufacturer says it could create thousands of jobs but warns that policy uncertainty may kill off the project The world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturer is offering to create over 2,000 jobs at the Kent port of Sheerness but warned the green energy project could be killed off by any uncertainty over government policies. Vestas has obtained exclusive rights to land – the equivalent to 93 football pitches – that would enable it to construct a huge new production facility to build a generation of mega-turbines to be used in the North Sea. “Before our customers can provide us with the needed order pipeline, they need stability in the market and a long-term political and regulatory certainty that ensures their business case,” said Anders Soe-Jensen, president of Vestas Offshore. “Making that happen lies in the hands of policy makers, so we are looking forward to seeing the UK government providing the best possible terms for the offshore wind market to truly take off and the potential jobs becoming a reality,” he added. The Vestas executive said the timing of a report from the government-established climate change committee on Monday which raised questions about the high cost of offshore wind “could not be worse for us.” Soe-Jensen warned it would be a “shame” if a great new job opportunity at Sheerness was lost. But he remained optimistic that Vestas could obtain the orders from the deep sea “Round 3″ projects that would allow the Danish-based company to build vast new turbines that would be as tall as the “Gherkin” office block in the City of London. Vestas has also built a new research and development centre on the Isle of Wight but created controversy when it closed a facility for building smaller turbines in the summer of 2009 . The renewable energy sector worldwide has been facing tougher times as politicians worry about wider budget cutbacks and seek to reduce subsidies to wind and solar despite a continuing desire to cut carbon emissions and tackle global warming. But there was a boost on Tuesday from Japan where the prime minister promised to scrap a plan to obtain half of its electricity from nuclear power and said it would promote renewable energy as a result of its nuclear crisis. Naoto Kan said Japan needed to “start from scratch” on its long-term energy policy after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was heavily damaged by a 11 March earthquake and began leaking radiation. A United Nations report out earlier this week predicted that if the regulatory and other conditions were right renewables could provide 80% of all the world’s energy needs after 2050. Wind power Energy Renewable energy Vestas Green jobs Green politics Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk
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The wind turbine manufacturer says it could create thousands of jobs but warns that policy uncertainty may kill off the project The world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturer is offering to create over 2,000 jobs at the Kent port of Sheerness but warned the green energy project could be killed off by any uncertainty over government policies. Vestas has obtained exclusive rights to land – the equivalent to 93 football pitches – that would enable it to construct a huge new production facility to build a generation of mega-turbines to be used in the North Sea. “Before our customers can provide us with the needed order pipeline, they need stability in the market and a long-term political and regulatory certainty that ensures their business case,” said Anders Soe-Jensen, president of Vestas Offshore. “Making that happen lies in the hands of policy makers, so we are looking forward to seeing the UK government providing the best possible terms for the offshore wind market to truly take off and the potential jobs becoming a reality,” he added. The Vestas executive said the timing of a report from the government-established climate change committee on Monday which raised questions about the high cost of offshore wind “could not be worse for us.” Soe-Jensen warned it would be a “shame” if a great new job opportunity at Sheerness was lost. But he remained optimistic that Vestas could obtain the orders from the deep sea “Round 3″ projects that would allow the Danish-based company to build vast new turbines that would be as tall as the “Gherkin” office block in the City of London. Vestas has also built a new research and development centre on the Isle of Wight but created controversy when it closed a facility for building smaller turbines in the summer of 2009 . The renewable energy sector worldwide has been facing tougher times as politicians worry about wider budget cutbacks and seek to reduce subsidies to wind and solar despite a continuing desire to cut carbon emissions and tackle global warming. But there was a boost on Tuesday from Japan where the prime minister promised to scrap a plan to obtain half of its electricity from nuclear power and said it would promote renewable energy as a result of its nuclear crisis. Naoto Kan said Japan needed to “start from scratch” on its long-term energy policy after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was heavily damaged by a 11 March earthquake and began leaking radiation. A United Nations report out earlier this week predicted that if the regulatory and other conditions were right renewables could provide 80% of all the world’s energy needs after 2050. Wind power Energy Renewable energy Vestas Green jobs Green politics Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk
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The wind turbine manufacturer says it could create thousands of jobs but warns that policy uncertainty may kill off the project The world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturer is offering to create over 2,000 jobs at the Kent port of Sheerness but warned the green energy project could be killed off by any uncertainty over government policies. Vestas has obtained exclusive rights to land – the equivalent to 93 football pitches – that would enable it to construct a huge new production facility to build a generation of mega-turbines to be used in the North Sea. “Before our customers can provide us with the needed order pipeline, they need stability in the market and a long-term political and regulatory certainty that ensures their business case,” said Anders Soe-Jensen, president of Vestas Offshore. “Making that happen lies in the hands of policy makers, so we are looking forward to seeing the UK government providing the best possible terms for the offshore wind market to truly take off and the potential jobs becoming a reality,” he added. The Vestas executive said the timing of a report from the government-established climate change committee on Monday which raised questions about the high cost of offshore wind “could not be worse for us.” Soe-Jensen warned it would be a “shame” if a great new job opportunity at Sheerness was lost. But he remained optimistic that Vestas could obtain the orders from the deep sea “Round 3″ projects that would allow the Danish-based company to build vast new turbines that would be as tall as the “Gherkin” office block in the City of London. Vestas has also built a new research and development centre on the Isle of Wight but created controversy when it closed a facility for building smaller turbines in the summer of 2009 . The renewable energy sector worldwide has been facing tougher times as politicians worry about wider budget cutbacks and seek to reduce subsidies to wind and solar despite a continuing desire to cut carbon emissions and tackle global warming. But there was a boost on Tuesday from Japan where the prime minister promised to scrap a plan to obtain half of its electricity from nuclear power and said it would promote renewable energy as a result of its nuclear crisis. Naoto Kan said Japan needed to “start from scratch” on its long-term energy policy after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was heavily damaged by a 11 March earthquake and began leaking radiation. A United Nations report out earlier this week predicted that if the regulatory and other conditions were right renewables could provide 80% of all the world’s energy needs after 2050. Wind power Energy Renewable energy Vestas Green jobs Green politics Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Neil Cavuto: America’s Financial Future Died Tuesday Because Senate Republicans Refused to Dismantle Medicare
May 11, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Neil Cavuto is terribly upset that the Republicans in the Senate have decided not to support Paul Ryan and the House’s budget plan and dismantle Medicare by turning it into a voucher system. Cavuto opened his segment with American Pie playing in the background and followed with this: CAVUTO: Alright, I don’t want to be melodramatic (too late for that Neil), but let it be known that this is the day America’s financial future died. I want you to write it down, May 10, 2011. The day tea partiers elected to the United States Senate not only caved, they quit. They folded their spending tent and left. And all because some Medicare recipients stomped their feet and roared. And those Republicans ran into their buzz-saw and just bugged out. I am telling you, they didn’t just blink, they bolted. Which is odd because Republican Senators like Pat Toomey and Marco Rubio got to where promising big cuts. Then they ran into this big old wall. They discovered some folks were fine, cutting spending, but in the case of some Medicare recipients, just not their spending. It is a familiar story. Cut, just don’t cut my stuff. So now my friends, we are all stuck. Republicans in the Senate said, because the reality is Democrats control the Senate today, so they’re keeping their powder dry for when they control the Senate some day. Which is why they are putting off things like Medicare until after 2012, as if the stark reality of things we’re facing will be any less after 2012. They won’t. I can understand their political math, but I fear out far more unfriendly math, by then likely one and a half trillion dollars more in debt, not even a game plan as how to hack that debt. They say they’ll focus then, but I fear it will be too late. No wonder all this talk of a third party now. The Grand Old Party has botched it. Time was of the essence and now the time has gone. And now, they’re of the essence and now they’re the ones risking being gone. History will show it started this day, the tenth of May, 2011, when they gave up the fight and they lost the war. This spring day in 2011, they lost something else, their souls. How dare all of those selfish seniors expect that their children and grand children be taken care of in their old age? Sorry Neil, but you just lost yours running this fearmongering segment. We’ve got the biggest income disparity since the Gilded Age in the United States and you want to throw seniors under the bus. Shame on you.
Continue reading …Neil Cavuto: America’s Financial Future Died Tuesday Because Senate Republicans Refused to Dismantle Medicare
May 11, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Neil Cavuto is terribly upset that the Republicans in the Senate have decided not to support Paul Ryan and the House’s budget plan and dismantle Medicare by turning it into a voucher system. Cavuto opened his segment with American Pie playing in the background and followed with this: CAVUTO: Alright, I don’t want to be melodramatic (too late for that Neil), but let it be known that this is the day America’s financial future died. I want you to write it down, May 10, 2011. The day tea partiers elected to the United States Senate not only caved, they quit. They folded their spending tent and left. And all because some Medicare recipients stomped their feet and roared. And those Republicans ran into their buzz-saw and just bugged out. I am telling you, they didn’t just blink, they bolted. Which is odd because Republican Senators like Pat Toomey and Marco Rubio got to where promising big cuts. Then they ran into this big old wall. They discovered some folks were fine, cutting spending, but in the case of some Medicare recipients, just not their spending. It is a familiar story. Cut, just don’t cut my stuff. So now my friends, we are all stuck. Republicans in the Senate said, because the reality is Democrats control the Senate today, so they’re keeping their powder dry for when they control the Senate some day. Which is why they are putting off things like Medicare until after 2012, as if the stark reality of things we’re facing will be any less after 2012. They won’t. I can understand their political math, but I fear out far more unfriendly math, by then likely one and a half trillion dollars more in debt, not even a game plan as how to hack that debt. They say they’ll focus then, but I fear it will be too late. No wonder all this talk of a third party now. The Grand Old Party has botched it. Time was of the essence and now the time has gone. And now, they’re of the essence and now they’re the ones risking being gone. History will show it started this day, the tenth of May, 2011, when they gave up the fight and they lost the war. This spring day in 2011, they lost something else, their souls. How dare all of those selfish seniors expect that their children and grand children be taken care of in their old age? Sorry Neil, but you just lost yours running this fearmongering segment. We’ve got the biggest income disparity since the Gilded Age in the United States and you want to throw seniors under the bus. Shame on you.
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