Electoral Commission throw money away - training NU Labour dumb clucks like Lordy Lord Triesman

UK Political Party workers are so dumb that the Electoral Commission gave the parties a total of £700,000 to help officials (he grant given was proportionate to the number of votes they got in the 1997 general election and the 1999 European elections) understand the new rules governing party funding and donations.

Labour was paid £165,000 in 2001 and £18,000 a year later, according to the Electoral Commission's accounts.

Shortly after Nu Labour (under Gen. Sec David (now Lordy Lord) Triesman started accepting secret donations from David Abrahams.,,, and continued to do so until a few weeks ago.

Would it be unreasonable to ask who received the training ? Can they read ? Can they do simple arithmetic ?

PS : Lordy Lord Triesman is of course the parliamentary Under Secretary for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

and is responsible for ...

• The Student Loans Company (and Customer First programme)
• The student loan debt sale
• Endowments and voluntary giving for higher education
• Quality assurance of Higher Education
• UK Intellectual Property Office
• Students as 'customers'
• Scenario building across DIUS
• Departmental efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability
• Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)
• Better Regulation

Fit for Purpose ?

On November 20thThe Cracking Ideas Award Ceremony saw the successful culmination of the first year of the UK Intellectual Property Office’s educational resource for primary schools: Cracking Ideas. At the prize giving event regional winners and the overall national winner were announced by Lord Triesman, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Intellectual Property and Quality..... Lord Triesman said Cracking Ideas had been a tremendous success and confirmed that the government would agree that it was a Cracking Idea for Nu Labour to observe it's duties and obligations under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.

Pic - Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki, President of the Republic of South Africa is met by Lord Triesman, Parliamentary Secretary and Major Richard Henderson, Lord Lieutenant of Ayrshire and Arran for the G8 Summit at Gleneagles, Scotland

Another fucking thieving VAT carousel fraudster locked up - Harjit Singh Takkar, he stole £4.5 Mn. in 3 months from taxpayer.

Harjit Singh Takkar, 32, of 9 Lampton Park Road, Hounslow, TW3 4HS was convicted and sentenced today to 7 years in the slammer on three counts; Conspiracy to Cheat the Public Revenue (seven years imprisonment), Cheat (three years imprisonment) and Fraudulent Trading (two years imprisonment). The sentences will be served concurrently.

He stole £4.5 million from the taxpayer by a sophisticated VAT fraud.In the 2 months between May 2004 and August 2004 trading as Hi-Profile Ltd, he purchased mobile phones and computer chips from suppliers in France. In a maze of transaction VAT was reclaimed ending up in Dubai . One exporter even re- claimed VAT again on the exports.

In one instance an export was traced to a German company from whom Takkar's suppliers had allegedly purchased phones indicating this was part of the fast growing European wide dimen sion to this sort of fraud which is milking the public purse faster than Gordon Brown can piss it up against the wall on Trident, aircraft carriers, bailing out Metronet, Northern Rock , seeing North Sea oil revenues decline, fines paid by DEFRA to the EU, Tax Credit cock-ups and expanding the prisons.

Of course the money will never be recovered - at least he is pretty low on the Alisher Usmanov Richter scale of stealing from the public purse.

It's time for some Ayurvedic masage from Toni Fabuloso or the lady who shares the saintly Mr Usmanov's home and life, young Alina (pic).

Alberto Gonzalez tells lies ... you gotta be kidding ?

Jon Stewart on his Daily Show catches Gonzales lies hypocrisy on McNulty.

Alberto Gonzales, 4/19/07: “Looking back, things that I would have done differently? I think I would have had the Deputy Attorney General more involved, directly involved.”

VERSUS

Alberto Gonzales, 5/15/07: “The recommendations reflected the views of the Deputy Attorney General. He signed off on the names and he would know better than anyone else, anyone else in this room.”(From Think Progress )

“Holy shit. Apparently the President of the United States sent his chief of staff and legal counsel to an ICU to convince a drugged-up, pancreatically inflamed John Ashcroft to subvert the constitution.”

Reminds one of the delicious Ruth Turner scurrying to see Labour Party Secretary McCartney dying in an ICU to sign up the necessary documents to sell the elevation of several rich , worthy, decent honest businessmen for peerages. (Who just happened to have loaned the Labour Party the money to fund the election in 2005)

By the Way ..what's the news of John McTiernan since he fucked up over the Scottish elections ?

Wolfowitz - Just the guy to rob run a bank

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz:

“There’s a lot of money to pay for this that doesn’t have to be U.S. taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people…and on a rough recollection, the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years…We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.”

[Source: House Committee on Appropriations Hearing on a Supplemental War Regulation, 3/27/03]

Smart guy though , he gets the World Bank to pay for his whore.... oops that was the "acting manager" of World Bank job of Manager of External Affairs and Outreach for the Middle East and North Africa .... with a tax free salary that exceeds Condi's and has a built in annual 8% pay rise. ... but then his predecessor Mr Wolfensohn did like to travel with a lot of VERY helpful ladies. Wolfie and his beautiful sidekick are a latter day Bonnie & Clyde, they don't blow the bank up, they just walk through the front door and take the money.



Update 21/4/07 Guradian

Rumour has it they say that she can suck the chrome off a fender ...Salon update here about how she also got a security pass.... " Wolfowitz's World Bank scandal over his girlfriend reveals many of the same qualities that created the wreckage he left in his wake in Iraq: grandiosity, cronyism, self-dealing and lying -- followed by an energetic campaign to deflect accountability."

"Riza was unhappy about leaving the sinecure at the World Bank. But in 2006 Wolfowitz made a series of calls to his friends that landed her a job at a new think tank called Foundation for the Future that is funded by the State Department. She was the sole employee, at least in the beginning. The World Bank continued to pay her salary, which was raised by $60,000 to $193,590 annually, more than the $183,500 paid to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and all of it tax-free. Moreover, Wolfowitz got the State Department to agree that the ratings of her performance would automatically be "outstanding." Wolfowitz insisted on these terms himself and then misled (he lied) the World Bank board about what he had done."

"Riza, who is not a U.S. citizen, had to receive a security clearance in order to work at the State Department. Who intervened? It is not unusual to have British or French midlevel officers at the department on exchange programs, but they receive security clearances based on the clearances they already have with their host governments. Granting a foreign national who is detailed from an international organization a security clearance, however, is extraordinary, even unprecedented. So how could this clearance have been granted?

"State Department officials familiar with the details of this matter confirmed to me that Shaha Ali Riza was detailed to the State Department and had unescorted access while working for Elizabeth Cheney. Access to the building requires a national security clearance or permanent escort by a person with such a clearance. But the State Department has no record of having issued a national security clearance to Riza."

"Surrounded by his Praetorian Guard, Wolfowitz insulated himself at the World Bank from the career staff. There, as at the Pentagon, Wolfowitz pushed aside the professionals and replaced them with a small band of politically reliable assistants. Wolfowitz rewarded them, too, on his own authority, with enormous tax-free salaries. Consider Kevin Kellems, his public affairs officer at the Pentagon, who had guided conservative media from that perch and is known as "keeper of the comb," for having been the person to hand Wolfowitz the infamous comb he licked before slicking down his hair in the Michael Moore film "Fahrenheit 9/11." Kellems was given a salary of $240,000, at least equal to what World Bank vice presidents with years of service earn."

Harmless fluttering ?

MANSION (Gibraltar) Limited, Europort Complex, Gibraltar, reg. no. 90318, registered with the Registrar of Companies of Gibraltar located at 315 Main Street, Gibraltar.

MANSION is licensed, headquartered, and operating in the British dependent territory of Gibraltar.

Imagine. Ireland is about to celebrate St. Patrick's day and they are playing world class Pakistan and the bets simply pour in ..... after all they lost (unexpectedly) to the Windies ....?

Mrs Jowell, (whose (ex?) husband is facing serious fraud charges currently with Tony Balir's great friend ex Prime Minister Senor Berlusconi) is evidently keen that the UK citizen can gamble 24 hours a day. The City, gamblers to a man, see no reason why Internet gambling cannot float on the market where a Man's word is his Bond ....... may perhaps just be pausing for thought about just where unbridled global gambling takes us ... BTW gambling is illegal in Islamic Pakistan.

Sad Sicko pervert San Salvador Israeli Ambassador and his colleagues : Amazing Pictures !

Daily Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that the Israeli ambassador to El Salvador for the last 6 months , Tzuriel Refael, 50 years old and single , was found by the residence Police unit in the back yard (some reports say he was in the street) of his residence naked, drunk, bound and gagged, it emerged Monday.

They report that policemen who guard the ambassador's residence found Refael with his hands tied, a rubber ball gag in his mouth and wearing sex toys. (See pic on right)

And why not ?

This is simply further evidence, if needed, that some sort of deviant sexual proclivity, whilst not essential for Israeli diplomatic staff, does help you get and keep the job.

In 2000, Israel's ambassador to France, Eliahu Ben - Elissar aged 68 was found in a hotel (Hotel Atala Champs Elysee) , a swanky 48 room palace in the most prestigious district of Paris -"All the 48 rooms are stylishly decorated and perfectly equipped".) under circumstances the Foreign Ministry refused to publicize and also under a woman who was not his wife at the time. His bodyguards had been stood down. Ben-Elissar served for 10 years in the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence agency, before embarking on a career in politics.

Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Ben-Elissar ambassador to the United States in 1996 and to France in 1998.

Naftali Tamir who represented the apartheid pariah state in sunny Oz told Haaretz that Israel and Australia are white sisters amid "the yellow race" of Asia and was recalled in October 2006.

Amir Laty, an Israeli diplomat was quietly expelled from Australia in 2004 which was blamed on his "close" friendship with the daughter of Federal Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock.

It was speculated in the Australian press that he was a Mossad handler of the three follwing agents ....

In the same year 3 Mossad agents Eli Cara, and Zev Barkan (who had diplomatic status when in Austria and Belgium and Uriel Kelman were run out of Australia. They had been detected stealing New zealand passports. Mossad had used a false Canadian passport in an attempt to assassinate a Palestinian leader in Jordan in 1997.

In 2005, Israel canceled the appointment of a diplomat to replace Amir Laity . It was a Aryeh Scher who was caught at the centre of a child sex scandal in Brazil five years ago. Aryeh Scher, was allegedly photographed in the nude with young girls. (see pic) He had previously been the Vice Consul (!) in Rio de Janierio - where he held parties with a Professor of Hebrew Georges Schteinberg involving (very) young girls. Read more here.

Between them they produced over 100 videos of children, countless photographs which were posted on 9 websites. Scher skipped the country and despite requests, extradition was refused. Arie Scher currently holds the office of first-secretary of the scientific and cultural department of the Ministry of Foreign affairs in Jerusalem.

In September 2005 Netherlands based Uriel Yitzhaki, 55 Israeli consul in the Hague, skipped the country after he was charged with issued 150 duplicate Israeli passports to people who were not entitled to them, in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars and other perks. The The Israeli business journal Globes Online and Haaretz reported he also "unlawful consensual sex" which means sex with a boy or girl aged 12 or younger, as the legal age of consent in the Netherlands is 13.

The head of the Israeli Defence Ministry Mission to Europe, David Dahan, was found dead in the Seine near Rouen in January , this was later described as a suicide although he left his mobile phone at home, and the tracker on his car had been disconnected.

ZAKA, a civilian team best known for its work recovering human remains at terror and accident sites in Israel, which was involved after 9/11 , and the Istanbul synagogue bombings in Istanbul sent a 10 man team to look for him when he went missing.

An Israeli diplomat, Yosef Sagiv Ofri,37 who worked in the Israeli Consulate was arrested on the 1st September 2006 in Atlanta GA on suspicion of computer related offences linked to pornography and the sexual exploitation of children. Ofri was accused of using emails and online messages to seduce a child from a suburb of Atlanta for "illegal acts relating to sodomy, aggravated sodomy, child molestation and aggravated child molestation."

Insourcing by Michael Bianco and the US Military - see no evil....

Founded in 1985 , the eponymously named Michael Bianco Inc ,89 West Rodney French Blvd, New Bedford, Ma. 02744 ( 47 miles south of Boston) is an American manufacturer of high quality leather goods they also make military equipment, airvests, medipacs etc., They boast of being contract manufacturing for retailers such as Coach Inc. of New York and Stratham, N.H.-based Timberland Co. e.g Leather Duffel set US$600 for Leather Bags in pic.

Apparently on Feb. 11, 2002: The Social Security Administration (SSA) contacted MBI about fraudulent or invalid Social Security numbers. Of the 83 employees, 23 percent have deficient payroll information. MBI failed to respond to the SSA letter or enquiries.

On Feb. 1, 2005: MBI reports having 151 employees. The SSA finds problems with 36 employee records; four had children's Social Security numbers and three had numbers belonging to dead people. In March, the SSA sent a letter about the irregularities.
March 31, 2005: MBI responds, submitting 326 payroll records. The SSA found 142 of those, or 44 %, deficient.

On Feb. 2, 2006: The SSA finds that 301, or 58 percent, of the 521 payroll records MBI submitted were deficient. Of the problem records, 33 belonged to adolescents, and 27 belonged to the dead.

On Aug. 10, 2006: The military awards MBI a $25 million contract for "load carrying systems."

Sept. 7, 2006: A female undercover ICE agent poses as "Yolanda Ramos-Mendez," an undocumented worker from Mexico seeking a job, and meets with MBI payroll manager Ana Figueroa, who allegedly advises the agent to get false identification. Another floor supervisor sends the agent to Luis Torres at the Aries Record Shop. The agent pays Torres $120 for a green card and Social Security card. The same day, the agent meets two undocumented workers from Honduras looking for jobs at MBI. 2 days later after a sewing test she gets a job.

Feb. 1, 2007: A federal agent watches 527 MBI employees arrive at work and recognizes several suspected undocumented workers. On about the same day, MBI submits payroll records for 646 employees. The SSA finds 66 % are deficient. More details here.

The factory was raided on Tuesday 6th March and 300 (out of 500 total workers) people were arrested by Homeland Security and Immigration and Custom Enforcement. It appears that 240 were flown to Texas and will probably be deported.

90 people were flown from Devens Air Force base to a detention center in Harlingen, Texas, on Wednesday and 116 others were flown to Albuquerque, N.M., on Thursday. See AP story for problems of dealing with mothers / children, providing welfare.

Factory owner Francesco Insolia and 4 managers, Ana Figueroa, Dilia Costa, Gloria Melo and Luis Torres were arrested for allegedly running a sweatshop, and a fifth person was charged with helping workers get fake identification. It is claimed the had dark dingy working conditions and faced onerous fines, such as a $20 charge for talking while working and spending more than two minutes in the bathroom. Pay was $7 to $7.50 per hour .

The ICE released a complete run down of the events which included :

Following the arrests, criminal complaints were unsealed today charging MBI owner Francesco Insolia, 50, of 3 Country Club Circle, Pembroke, Massachusetts (also the address of Leather Bags an online leather bag store) ; payroll manager Ana Figueroa, 40, of 150 Thompson Street, New Bedford; plant manager, Dilia Costa, 55, of 43 Sherman Street, New Bedford; and office manager Gloria Melo, 41, of 135 Sprague Street, Fall River, with conspiring to encourage or induce illegal aliens to reside in the United States, and conspiring to hire illegal aliens. Luis Torres, 45, of 500 South Second Street, New Bedford, was charged in a separate complaint with the knowing transfer of fraudulent identification documents. The defendants will appear in federal court today before a U.S. Magistrate Judge.

There is more detail on the charges, possible penalties here.

The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) said on Thursday it was suspending the company from bidding on future military contracts (they have been supplying since 2004) , but no changes would be made to the firm's current $83.6 million contract.

One contract for US$32.3 Mn is for a Modular Lightweight Load Carrying Equipment (MOLLE) for the Defense Supply Center in Philadelphia. Michael Bianco is scheduled to deliver the equipment by August 2007.

Incidentally this extract from voting records is of interest..

NEW BEDFORD, MA Political Contributions by Individuals
Insolia, Francesco (Michael Bianco/Owner), (Zip code: 02746) $250 to BARNEY FRANK FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE on 08/25/04 Kalisz, Frederick (New Bedford/Mayor), ... Barmey is a democrat and has represented 4th Mass. since 1981 , he describes himself " I'm a left - handed gay Jew I've never felt, automatically, a member of any majority." he is chairman of the chairmanship of the House Financial Services Committee supports same sex marriages, and is opposed to internet gambling -"Adults are entitled to do with their money what they want to do." he said confusingly on May 15th 2006. Evidently a man who likes it both ways.

This was evidently a mammoth and well prepared raid ... Mr. Chadbourne, Boston-based field Director of Apprehension, Detention & Removal for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said it took about a month to prepare the Devens area before the raid. His department is a section of the federal Department of Homeland Security.

About 700 agents were called from all over the country to complete what was the fourth largest such raid conducted in the country, he said. He also said about 60 percent of those arrested were from Guatemala. The second largest group was from El Salvador, followed by Brazilians. The women outnumbered men arrested 2-to-1.

There is a Forum on the raid by Americans for Legal Immigration.

Drug Smuggler banged up .. 90 Kg. £5.6 Mn. 12 years

Stephen Edwards 56 ,of Bolton, drove his motor home to Rotterdam on the 9th August last year to compete in a go-kart race. He returned on the 14th and Customs officers found 90 kgs of cocaine in 90 wrapped packages of cocaine with an estimated street value of £5.4 million.

He was sentenced in Hull today to 12 years in prison 9 years for smuggling a Class A drug and 3 years on 2 counts of money laundering.

Carbon Black Hole gets bigger and better - Financial PR gets into top gear

Four news items relating to the carbon trading market hit the headlines today:

1. The EU energy ministers have rejected the European Commission's proposal to introduce a binding target for renewable energy of 20 % by 2020.

2. The EUA Dec 2007 price for one ETU (= 1 Tonne CO2) reached the lowest price ever of €1.23 = 82 p = 98 US Cents

3. The Chicago Climate Exchange (North America’s only, and the world’s first, greenhouse gas (GHG) emission registry, reduction and trading system for all six greenhouse gases ) has suspended its programme that allowed EU allowances (EUAs) to be used to meet CCX emission reduction compliance requirements – over fears that the CCX would be flooded with cheap credits from Europe - thus knocking back attempts at establishing and developing a "world market in carbon."

4. " Greed is motivating Wall Street to join the fight against global warming." says an article today by Bloomberg

Climate Exchange PLC (issued late '04) shares rose 13% , up 107.50 to 955p (they have been 1237pa and took off in September ) which values the company at £394 Mn. The company has no revenues, no income and a net asset value of £29 Mn but have what is considered (like a Canadian owned Kazakh goldmine) a very good story to justify this phenomenal valuation. The company can be contacted C/O Barings (Isle of Man) Limited, St James’s Chambers, Athol Street, Douglas, Isle of Man IM1 1JE.

The company now own and operate Chicago Climate Exchange("CCX") and Chicago Climate Futures Exchange ("CCFE") and (Trading website here )issued a statement of trading on 22nd January 2007. The highlights of which were ...

"All the key performance indicators showed a substantial increase over the same period in 2005. The political climate in the U.S. has become increasingly receptive and the profile of climate change has been significantly raised. (see below) CCX and CCFE are well positioned to benefit from these circumstances and have been able to achieve significantly increased volumes and liquidity."

In 2006, CCX traded a total of 452.8 Mn Tonnes of CO2 (2005 = 94.3 Mn T) of which 175.9 Mn T (39%) was in futures and 276.9 Mn T 61%) was in Exchange of Futures for Physical ("EFPs") . Average daily volume traded during the year was 1.8 Mn T ... in other words they didn't actually trade (i.e actually buy and sell carbon they merely allowed the trading of promises to deliver (Futures) and and even fancier "derived" product Exchange of Futures for Physical ("EFPs").

On the 20th September 2006 Goldman Sachs Group Inc. agreed to subscribe for 4,174,467 new Ordinary Shares at a price of 293 pence, representing some 10.1 per cent of Climate Exchange on the 9th of February they announced this had increased to 8,352,041 ordinary shares of 1p each in the Company, representing 20.21% of the Company's issued share capital of which roughly half are held as Nominees for their customers. Read about their "Green Biz strategy here.

On 12th February 2007 Cayman Islands based Harbinger Capital Masters Fund 1. Ltd and Harbinger Capital Partners Special Situations Fund, LP announced their interest in 4,287,000 ordinary shares representing 10.4% of the Company's issued share capital.

Glenn Payne, Director of First Reserve Corp., the biggest private equity firm in the energy industry (US$12.5 Bn under management) , says `Giddy returns'' are probable (perhaps he "meant irrational exuberance" ) which will lead to a quintupling of credit values to around $19 per ton of carbon dioxide, from $3.50 now. In April CO2 was trading on the ETS at US$43 and today at US$ 0.92.

Elswhere Bloomberg reports the climate change fever has gripped the New York money jugglers Bankers.

1. Morgan Stanley, 2nd largest securities firm, plans to invest US$3 Mn over the next 5 years $3 billion of programs to cut greenhouse gas pollution or in the credits that result.

2. Citigroup Inc. and Minnesota-based Cargill Inc., the largest U.S. agricultural company,have agreed on a joint venture to buy shares in Sindicatum Carbon Capital Ltd. to generate carbon credits. See the full Business Wire story 13/2/07 here. Deputy Chairman of of SCC is Lord Stone of Blackheath (Votes as a Labour Peer) who spent a lifetime with Marks and Spencer ( he left school with 5 'O' Levels - 1 of them in woodwork) and retired as Joint MD in 1999. See Footnote.

3. First Reserve have contracted with struggling, cash strapped, Tyson Foods Inc. to buy carbon credits generated by cleaning up the methane from its chicken scraps and wastewater ponds which they can then sel on to companies that need to meet state or federal pollution limits.

They have signed similiar contracts with Arkansas truckers, J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. and the Boise, Idaho-based Albertson's grocery chain from greenhouse gas reductions replacing truck fuel with biodiesel and installing energy efficient store lighting.

Unbelievably Payne is also quoted, saying " The market in Europe, where greenhouse gas emission caps have been in place for two years, shows how high the value of U.S. credits will climb."

4. As ever the bearded jersey generates heat and excitement and his announcment with Al Gore, inventor of the Internet and responsible for the film, "The Uncomfortable Truth" of a $25 million prize for anyone who can devise better and more efficient ways to reduce and store CO2 helps to keep the pot boiling.

5. Germany's E.ON AG, the world's largest utility, said Feb. 7 that it will acquire credits by investing with banks in projects that curb greenhouse gases in the developing world.

6. Electric generator manufacturers, General Electric Co., and power plant builder AES Corp. of Arlington, Virginia, announced on Jan. 14 (4 pages PDF)that they created a joint venture for carbon emission credits with which they intend to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 10 million tons each year, creating 10 million credits, ``Our goal is to make this a viable business in a voluntary market and be a leader as it becomes regulated,'' he said. (Which makes you wonder if this remarkable rush for this evanescent market is based on more knowledge of the proposed legislation than has been made public)

“AES is committed to helping address climate change as part of our broader alternative
energy strategy,” said Paul Hanrahan, President and CEO of AES - which is a remarkable thing for the major US producer of coal burning power stations to say in public.

“This initiative will help GE Energy Financial Services double its already sizeable $1.5 billion portfolio of investments in renewable energy projects by the end of 2008, and will contribute to GE’s ecomagination program,” said Alex Urquhart, President and CEO of GE Energy Financial Services. ..Through its Ecomagination program,"

Ecomagination program - Dontcha just love it when they talk not-dirty like this ?

A great deal of this froth of speculation is based on the belief that Congress will approve a law to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases that cause global warming. Beautiful grandmother and darling of AIPAC, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said last week that ``mandatory action'' is needed to cut emissions in half by 2050. Even the President in his State of the Union address, perhaps signalled a change to the money jugglers when he talked of the need to ..."confront the serious challenge of global climate change'' (6 Buzz words and 2 prepositions in 8 words)

The article headlined the apparent 45% return that Isle of Man based Trading Emissions Plc, made in selling 255,000 credits to the U.K. government at about €14.50 euros a ton which they acquired in late 2005 and early 2006 for less than €10 euros each - when the market price today is € 1.23. A good sale ...or a lousy purchase ?

Speculators, including hedge funds, are replacing industrial companies as the biggest buyers of carbon credits, according to Greg Spencer, chief executive officer of Blue Source, founded only in 2001 - a Salt Lake City-based company that develops greenhouse gas projects (Blue Source has entered into the single largest US-based offset sale to date, at 9 Mn tonnes and has secured under long-term sourcing to the year 2019. ) in which First Reserve Corp have taken a 50% interest . . ``It's more about taking positions in a market that will appreciate significantly over time,'' .

Which sounds an awful lot like gambling ... or rigging the market ?

Footnote
Lord Stone of Blackheath is, amongst many other interests, Deputy Chairman Sindicatum Carbon Capital Ltd., and Director of seriously loss making DealGroupMedia plc, and of the seriously profitable N Brown Group plc which announced on 25th Jan 2007 a return of £89 Mn to shareholders as a special dividend of 27p per share. He is an Advisor to McDonald’s Restaurants, a Governor of the Weizmann Institute of Science and of the European Council of Ben Gurion University, a member of The Israel Britain Business Council and The Labour Friends of Israel , Patron of the enlightened New Israel Fund (see this story re Arab Housing) and has a lifelong interest in the process of creating understanding and toward peace in the Middle East.

Femme Fatalé ... Scapegoat .. or sacrificial Lamb ?

It was late 2004 - the spring election loomed. New Labour needed new funds. Naturally it's chief fund raiser, the Karaoke King, and ace backhander (on the tennis court) smiling, petite, Lord Levy, stopped lolling on the scarlet leather ottoman in his Foreign Office. He got to work. With a will.

Markers were called in, funny handshakes made, egos massaged and the vain were flattered. The result was 12 handy sized loans and sizeable loans and £14 Mn banked at the Co-op. (How many were approached and stalled one wonders ?) £14 Mn concealed, not only from prying eyes, but from the Party, it's senior officers but also from the Party Treasurer - although where he thought all the money he was authorising to spend came from , is a puzzle.

It was a conspiracy to deceive. The provision of coronets for cash was a subsidiary and sordid affair - the grubby and familiar stuff of politics which starts with steering Planning committees in Town Halls up and down the land by all Parties. The mechanics of it were a tertiary and (they thought in the rarified atmosphere that rules in No 10, even now) tiresome task of housekeeping - best left to a woman then.

This self evident Truth is slowly dawning .. the Sunday Telegraph, exultant that a handwritten note of the Dear Leaders apparently appears on a document apparently from No 10 says ...

"The note is understood to acknowledge the efforts of Labour's 12 secret lenders who provided £14 million to help the party fight the 2005 election." **

...which is of course exactly what the Conservative Party were doing as well - but were not in the business of bunging baronetcies on the strength of it. Cue silent Opposition.

Let's get this clear - this was a financial conspiracy undertaken to conceal the source of political funding .... now we need to back track and look at the funding of Mr Blair's office when he was in opposition and Leader of the (then) Labour Party.... arm's length Blind Trust's m'lud.

** ..er... No 10 deny the existence of such a script.

Israel Parliament and Government - Business as usual

Former President of Israel the late Ezer Weizman, accepted “gifts” of $450,000 from a French millionaire while serving as an MP and minister and was forced to resiign.

The current President Moshe Katsav has been charged with raping a former employee at the Tourism Ministry and sexually harassing three other workers at the presidential residence. He will also face charges of fraud, breach of trust, harassing a witness and obstruction of justice.

Meni Mazuz, the Israeli Attorney-General last week announced a criminal investigation into the involvement of the Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, in the sale of the government-owned Bank Leumi in 2005 when he was Finance Minister. Meni Mazuz, has removed himself from the case because his sister holds a senior position at the Finance Ministry and took part in the privatisation of the bank.

The state comptroller's office, a government watchdog, is investigating Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert's purchase of a home in Jerusalem, allegedly for far below its market value.Mr Olmert sold the house for US$2.7 million to an offshore company controlled by S Daniel Abraham, the founder of Slim-Fast, in 2004. Mr Abraham had previously contributed funds to Mr Olmert's election campaigns.

The newspaper Haaretz has claimed that Mr Olmert continued to live in the house following the sale, paying rent at about half the market rate.

On September 24th 2006 Tzahi Hanegbi the chairman of the Israel Parliament's influential Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee and a senior ally of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was charged with fraud, bribery and perjury in connection with appointments he made as a minister. The charges relate to appointing political allies to government jobs when serving as environment minister from 2001 to 2003.

How Tony Blair throws away taxpayers money on carbon "offsets" on his air miles

If you are wondering what Tony Blair means when he says he will "offset" his long distance travel (as he did today) - this is what it means - when he travels , or anyone else does on Gubment business.

The UK Gubment are committed to offset Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from air travel by government staff from April 2006. (The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have their own emissions reduction commitments - don't ask why, that's how Gubments work - it's called joined up Gubment)
.
The UK Gubment does this by buying credits from UK-based emissions trading fund Trading Emissions PLC (Y/E 30/6/2006 Turnover £7.21 Mn Profit £3.49 Mn - yes folks that's GROSS PROFIT of 50%) In this instance some other City based Hooray Henries called EEA Fund Management Ltd got a share of the action as well - (follow link for details)

On 28th December 2006 (last week - PAnews/20060029/32377087 and more details here) Trading Emissions sold 225,000t of certified emissions reduction (CER) credits to the UK government carbon offsetting fund at £9.76/t = Euro 7.40 (US$19/t), or 90pc of the price of 2008 EU emissions allowances(tender bid total £2.5 Mn 1/3rd of Annual T/O). The government has the option to buy a further 50,000t of CERs = £0.5Mn. (Today's price is somewhat less at £5.20 = Euro 3.55 - see graph) - smart buying eh ?

“The government is increasingly aware of the environmental impact of air travel and this is a way to mitigate unavoidable emissions,” a spokesman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said.

The credits will be generated from small-scale renewable energy and energy efficiency clean development mechanism projects, one of the flexible mechanisms under the Kyoto protocol - such as Sri Lankan villagers using Photo voltaics to generate daytime electricity to run domestic low voltage lights in the evening , TV's etc instead of using paraffin fuelled lighting (which helps prevent the development of nationwide electricity supply systems that are more efficient) ...or Brazilian farmers preventing methane escaping from pig ..er...shit.

One CER will offset the emissions from around 10,000km of air travel — nearly enough for one London-New York return trip, according to the CarbonNeutral company.

All this hasn't stopped a single kilo of jetfuel being burnt - but it gives some folks in Whitehall and Westminster with a nice warm feeling , and of course a Carbon Trader with a fancy commission and if he/she anticipated the market dropping (ie they read Lord Patel on a regular basis) they could have dealt themselves a nice fat trading profit on top - which no doubt they did.

That is what Lord Patel means when he talks about the casino that carbon trading is..a casino that is fed very often with taxpayers money.

This my child is called climate change economics.

Massive Europe wide raids to tackle huge VAT fraud

VAT fraudsters , who are extremely successful and resourceful organised criminals steal £400 MN a month from the UK Treasury, more than the combined cost of the illegal Iraqi invasion and occupation force and sending ill equipped,and under resourced soldiers to a certain death in Afghanistan ...

As part of a massive integrated operation,targeting multi million pound VAT fraud, 300 HM Revenue and Customs staff (HMRC) have been deployed across France, Spain, Germany and the UK in the early hours of today.

A total of 50 search warrants were executed at business and domestic addresses in London, Glasgow, the Midlands, Manchester, Dover, Bristol and South Wales. A total of 13 people were arrested in the operation - further arrests are expected.

Whilst organised criminals steal £400Mn a month (at least - no one knows the true figure) HMRC have had some success, in 2005 - 06, there were six successful prosecutions for carousel fraud, resulting in 18 convictions and total prison sentences of 67 years.

A further nine successful prosecutions have concluded since April this year, resulting in 35 convictions and jail sentences totalling 165 years. - there have also been successful proceedings for asset recovery in one case a recovery of £13 Mn , plus a Marbella villa and 3 racehorses, even after the alleged criminal was found inoccent of VAT fraud.

Total assets recovered so far do not exceeed £20 Mn, 2 days take for the fraudsters...each day ... every day... all day.

Assets recovered in Edinburgh

Michael Voudouri, (pic) from Alloa in Clackmannanshire, got 4 years in 2004 after pleading guilty to or operating a major VAT fraud involving £3Mn VAT evasion by three companies he operated. Fairwood Trading and Cortec Management, textile traders and also £20Mn of turnover with - Computer Technics, who acquired computer chips from Denmark, Luxembourg and the Republic of Ireland.

He is now out of prison and at the High Court in Edinburgh, on 28th November, assets of his were seized and he was given 6 months to pay £1.3m, the single biggest seizure under Proceeds of Crime legislation. The proceeds from the sale of a £600,000 Bridge of Allan house will be added to that of other addresses in Alloa and London.

Music industry group involved in mobile phone fraud of £40Mn.

In September 2005 4 people received jail sentences totalling 22 years forma £40MN VAT fraud. In passing sentence, Her Honour Judge Williams said, "It was an audacious and outrageous fraud... all defendants showed a shameless dishonesty."

The highly organised scam, operated over 2 years, involved buying mobile phones from twelve fictitious companies (they were clones of legitimate UK firms, set up in Hong Kong with names and letter-heads identical to British firms dealing legitimately in telephones and computer chips) and using false receipts to charge VAT on the transactions, resulting in a loss to HM Revenue & Customs of more than £40 million. The proceeds from this crime were then sent to the Hong Kong bank accounts of a number of companies created to perpetrate the fraud.

All four defendants faced two charges, Cheating the Public Revenue with intent to defraud, contrary to Common Law and (Money Laundering) Assisting another to retain benefit of criminal conduct contrary to s93A(1) (a) CJA 1988.of cheating the public revenue with intent to defraud, and money laundering.

Musician Stephen Pigott, DOB 27/12/62. A musician/ music producer of Dubai, UAE. Was sentenced to nine years on both counts to run concurrently. His work invloved star names such as Celine Dion, Rod Stewart,The Pet Shop Boys and Mike and the Mechanics and had a string of song-writing awards to his name.

As part of the fraud Pigott had emplyed a trick lifted from the Frederick Forsyth novel The Day of the Jackal, Pigott got a passport in the name of David Roy Chapman after finding the name on a child's gravestone in a churchyard near his birthplace in Yorkshire.

Stacy Haber-Hofberg, DOB 25/01/62 a former environmental judge in New York , who had moved to Liphook, Hampshire with her English husband and their three young children , received six years on each count to run concurrently.(pic) She is also a songwriter, producer (of countless music videos, documentaries, the Off-Broadway play The Man From Verona, and the feature films "Def By Temptation" and "Rockabilly Vampire", the latter two often cited [she insists by design!] as being amongst the worst horror films ever made).

In addition both Pigott and Haber-Hofberg were both disqualified from holding the position of company director for the next fifteen years.

Joanna Harris DOB 24/02/69. A fitness instructor of London SE26. She was sentenced to three and a half years on both counts to run concurrently.

Theresa Igbanugo (38) a record label director of Sydenham, she had a reputation as a very good pioneering music entrepreneur, talent-spotting young acts. London SE26 received three and a half year sentences on each count to run concurrently. Harris and Igbanugo were also both disqualified from being a company director for ten years.

Recovery of assets proceedings are underway.... but ... Mr Big got away , Piggott refused to identify a man he called "Matt" whom he met in a bar ... he is thought now to be in Dubai from where he cannot be extradited. To HMRC he was John Andrew Shaw (code Z111), 52, a businessman and father of two from Sheffield. HNRC had a 67-page dossier on him. Another codename, Mauve 111, is a code given to his former home, a converted farmhouse in a South Yorkshire village.

The dossier identifies a lengthy series of suspicious transactions via banks in Dublin, Hong Kong, Ghana and the Isle of Man, as money was harvested from the HMRC frusdulently and then washed by banks around the world ... who know nothing about the fraud.

Politics and the sewage works - the solid bits rise to the top

Promotions, pay rises honours - how the key players in the Kelly scandal were rewarded

The politicians and officials at the heart of the David Kelly murder scandal have been showered with honours, promotions or lucrative retirement jobs in the 3 years since his death.

Read Norman Baker MP's expose of the fat cats getting fatter for their part in the murder of Dr David Kelly.
http://dr-david-kelly.blogspot.com/2006/12/promotions-pay-rises-honours-how-key.html

e.g

Ann Taylor, 59, Labour MP, was chairwoman of Parliament's Intelligence Committee.(pic)
Salary: £56,000.
Role: She headed the committee that published a report which exonerated Downing Street over allegations of manipulating the Iraq intelligence The committee rejected Andrew Gilligan's charge that Alastair Campbell was responsible for "sexing up" the dossier.
Now: Ennobled as Baroness Taylor of Bolton on 13th May 2005 after resigning her Dewsbury seat in favour of Shahid Malik. In her first year in the Lords she claimed more than £30,000 in tax-free "subsistence allowances".


Donald Anderson, 67, was Labour chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
Salary: £56,000.
Role: Agreed to Government request from Defence Minister Geoff Hoon not to ask David Kelly awkward questions about Iraq's WMD. Kelly was found dead two days after he appeared before Anderson's committee.
Now: Elevated to Lords as Baron Anderson of Swansea . on 13th May 2005 after resigning his Swansea Dewsbury seat in favour of Sian James.Claimed £25,000 last year in tax-free attendance allowances in return for attending Lords on a total of 94 days.

How do they sleep at night ? What is worse, buying a Baronetcy or selling your soul
for one ?

PS Shahid Malik is a very loyal New Labour member pro ID cards, Anti Terror legilsation and against an investigation into the illegal Iraq invasion he did however pop up in a debate on the invasion of the Lebanon by Israel with this remark ...

My hon. Friend rightly said that two or three children a day were dying as a result of cluster bombs. Does he agree that it would be helpful if the Israelis gave the grid maps for those bombs? That could save lives; the fact that the Israelis are not yet doing that is nothing short of shameful.

He wants to be careful .... and not go for long country walks on his own.

Fight Crime! Buy a Gun.

US readers will be astonished that supplying guns has resulted in Robert Tyrer, 51, his brother Jamie, 36, and Kenneth Lloyd, 55, being jailed for a total of 37 years for selling guns.

The 3 men imported 274 non firing pistols from Germany, and in their small engineering workshop in a run-down part of Manchester converted them into "Saturday Night Specials", probably as dangerous to the user as the target.

Guns sold by the men were linked to two murders and two suicides and other crimes, Manchester Crown Court were told this week . Sentences were handed down which would make any one who thought of copying them think twice. The men pleaded guilty.

They also built single bullet-firing pen guns, described by Judge Martin Steiger QC as an “assassin’s weapon”.

A man, Michael Sammon (46) described as "the paymaster" is missing and wanted by the police.

Another man, an engineer , David McCulloch, 52, who provided the expertise needed to convert the guns, will be sentenced on November 27.

Thomas Ravenscroft who is gravely ill was sentenced to two years, suspended for two years in his absence.

Police have said that one of the guns was found under the bonnet of a Jaguar car owned by of Manchester's most notorious gangsters, Domenyk Noonan of Bacup Street, Moston, was jailed for nine-and-a-half years recently.

Other guns supplied by these men were used In Liverpool in April 2005, when Norman Blythin, 38, shot a friend (?) in the chest. The friend survived but Mr Blythin was later found dead in his car after apparently turning the weapon on himself.

Brian Walsh, 47, is believed to have used one of the guns when he shot his wife in the head outside a flat in Droylsden in July 2006 and then turned the weapon on himself.

Police believe another of the guns was used in a kidnap and torture incident in Liverpool.

OLympic Gold - Mining in reverse, dig holes and fill them with Gold.

Lord Patel thinks Mrs Jowell has been unreasonably criticised, this pleasant middle aged, housewife, Minister for Circuses has only to say the cost of the Olympics has risen from the initial guess estimate of £2.2 Bn. by only £900Mn and the attack dogs, Left AND Right are out for her blood.... and the ..er .. regeneration cost have risen to £1.5 Bn, surprisingly VAT is due (Not another VAT scam surely. Ed.) Who would want her job? Well she does apparently, she has hung on to her job longer than any Minister other than the dour preacher's son from the Lang Toon.

Just as well, as soon after the announcement of success at Singapore the jubilant Jowell told Paxman (who raised it must be remembered a quivering quizzical eyebrow and a broader than usual smirk).

“We can and will avoid the cost over-run which Athens experienced and the long-term debt which some other previous host cities have had to deal with,”

Ho. Ho.

VAT was't accounted for in the report prepared by KCMG, the country's foremost tax accountantcs, security costs have soared .. it goes on and on , and her foes are foaming at the mouth and stagger back at the size of the alleged Total Cost. Whatever and however that may possibly be prepared ,at this stage, puzzles the bean counters at Patel Mansions, confident that whatever it is, it well never be calculated carefully or publicised at all.

This rapidly climbing and fanciful figure is used loosely by those denizens of the night, un sober and fevered sub - editors on the Red Rag press, just so long as it will fit in a screaming headline. £ 5 Bn! £7Bn! a more precise £8.2 Bn. even 20 Bn Euros, a larger and more scaring number for London ratepayers and Lotto gamblers. Cast in this ersatz currency to allow for comparisons with the cost of Athens Olympics. Demonstrating, as if it needed demonstrating that London can out run the Greeks for overspending, if not at running.

Jowell faces up the to the inquisitive MP's on the committee sniffing a scandal in the air, and does a splendid job , much as a spendthrift Director might face his (her) creditors. Well she might because, in Italy her supposedly estranged husband, a cocksure, bi-lingual ( he lies fluently in both Italian and English) and deeply unpleasant man who faces, with his client, mentor, friend, and fellow crook charges of bribery and money laundering.

The plain , if not dowdy housewife who faced off the MP's with such aplomb, (all kids want a medal, all kids will get a medal! see Seb's wizard scheme) had a house with a joint mortgage with her sinister spouse. It was re-mortaged for £400,000 with an offshore bank, then 5 weeks later repaid . She asserted with unblinking stare and scarcely a blush, that, this was “a very normal thing to do, and certainly not illegal.” (Fashion note : are rumours of botoxification correct?)

Yes. Normal that is, for money launderers, especially when the source of the money ( a mere US$600,000) seems confusingly, in correspondence her untruthful husband has with his accountants, either a gift, or a loan or ... maybe even a standard payment for services (and hence taxable). He also said in a signed confession to the Italian police, the money came from Snr Berlusconi - a claim he now says was extracted under duress.

Ho. Ho.

To provide more "clarity" Mr Mills went on to explain the money was not in fact a bribe from Berlusconi for the evidence he had just given in an Italian court to keep Berlusconi out of jail. It was rather a ...er .....personal gift. Then he says that this statement was a lie to protect another client, - who it transpires now denies this, as he was in prison at the time.

So who is surprised that the financial affairs of the Olympics are awry already - a monster deal allegedly fudged through in a Singapore hotel room by Gold Medal liar Tony Blair who was handing out "favours", political payoffs in one on one meetings with IOC members and mutual backscratching to get the result he wanted. London beat Paris by 4 votes and the Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë, was quick to accuse his opponents of bending the rules by continue to lobby IOC members until only hours before the decisive session began. Deeper, darker, dirtier deeds are the subject that swell around what Tony Blair got up to sequestered in his Raffles City convention complex in Singapore as the IOC members (64 of the 100 IOC members met and jollied with Tony and Cherie in those 48 hours) relentlessly filed in and wreathed in smiles and bonhomie, filed out.

Olympic Gold, for sure - that will rapidly disappear into the capacious pockets of rapacious City Lawyers , Accountants, Consultants, Property tycoons, Construction companies, PR outfits with sleazy connections to No 10 and the general rag bag of carpet baggers, no goods , ne'er do groupies and camp followers wells that attend these hoopla missions - see Millennium dome.

However Lord Patel can provide some modest savings, his Logo which first he aired in December (see top) is available free of copyright, free of charge.

ATM rip-offs.

Maxwell Parsons (41) of Gorton Manchester was a passenger in a car which made an illegal U-turn in the City of London. On searching the car the Police found a counterfeit bank card and Parson, who was known to the Police, had his home searched.

This uncovered a ridiculously simple method of harvesting data from free standing ATM's in bingo halls, amusement arcades and bowling alleys. By simply intercepting the BT telephone line connecting the machine to the BACS network , installing and cheap (£2) 2 way plug and attaching an MP3 player, to record the oscillating signal (such as you may hear when connecting to a Fax machine) Parsons was able to record data for later demodulation and reconstruction of the card number and PIN.

So far some £200,000 of purchases have been traced using modified credit cards only £14,000 of it traced back to Parson - who got 32 months for his troubles at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester this week.

On August 19th in the US a black male, approximately 5'8" tall with a thin build wearing a white T-shirt with writing on the back, dark shorts, dark tennis shoes and a red ball cap was last seen driving a light tan four-door car. He strolled into a Crown Gas Station at 2400 Lynnhaven Parkwayn, Virgina Beach VA. and casually re-programmed it 's ATM machine run by Net Bank Payment Systems, based in Jackson, Mississippi. From the public console he instructed it to issue US$20 bills instead of US$5 bills and only debit his account with the US$5 debits. - due to a limit on it issuing 80 bills it limited the scam to US$800. Apparently it took following users who benefited from the scam 9 days to report it! As the perp used an untraceable pre-paid debit card he also was untraceable.

See CNN report with CCTV of the casual dude at work here on You Tube (1.34) 154,749 views to date

Dave Goldsmith, working in computer security researcher at Matasano Security,NY. (We specialize in solving the security challenges of complicated applications deployed in high-risk environments) ... dug into this news story on CNN and was able to identify the machine's model and maker: a Tranax Mini Bank 1500 series - there are 75,000 Mini-Bank ATMs in service in the US.

Obtaining a (legal) copy of Tranax's manual which spelt out the diagnostic mode, default passwords - which engineers couldn't be arsed to change. he found he could soon be inside and once inside - and armed with the manual - hey Presto ! Open Sesame time.

Tranax say they have a firmware fix in the works but engineers REALLY should change the password from default. Ho.Ho.

NSA warrantless surveillance cases arrive in Court...

Go to Wired News " NSA Case Becomes Lawyer Junket" for details of the 48 lawsuits and 24 lawyers assembled to consider against the US's largest telco's for willingly participating in warrantless Government surveillance of US citizens before Chief Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco.

AT & T lawyer Bradford Berenson raised a laugh when he said he can't know what to do until the appeals court rules on state secrets.

"I couldn't answer a complaint if a gun were put to my head," Berenson said.

"I don't know anything and don't have a security clearance."

Ho. Ho. Ho.

Very funny until you turn to his biography at his blue chip Washington firm,Sidley Austin Brown and Wood LLP. which states that from January 2001 (when the wire tapping - which the Gubment have admitted took place, started) through January 2003, Mr. Berenson served as Associate Counsel to the President of the United States. In the White House, he worked on a wide variety of legal, legislative and policy issues associated with the Bush Administration’s relations with Congress, its justice and domestic policy initiatives, and the war on terrorism. These included judicial selection, responses to congressional oversight and investigations, the USA Patriot Act, the Military Order authorizing the use of military commissions, detainee policy and anti-terrorism litigation, presidential action against terrorist financing, and the creation of the new Department of Homeland Security.

There is more here about how this adjunct fellow of the American Enterprise Institute worked with a tight knit team for Alberto Gonzalez on the legal status of "detainees" captured in the War on Terrorism, the validity (or otherwise) of the Geneva Conventions, and a new less stringent and curious legal definition of torture.

Berenson is also Co-founder of Citizens for the Common Defence, a shadowy group, whose members include Robert Bork and 23 other conservative lawyers and legal scholars, including several recent veterans of the White House counsel's office and the Justice Department. They act as Amicus Curiae or "Friends of the Court" and describe their interests in the case of Hamdi v Rumsfeld ...(PDF alert)

" Citizens for the Common Defence (“CCD”) is an association that advocates a conception of robust Executive Branch authority to meet the national security threats that confront the nation in its war against international terrorists.

The organization’s name derives from the Preamble to the Constitution, which recognizes that “to provide for the common defence” against foreign threats is one of the great objects of government our Constitution was meant to secure. Far from being inconsistent with “secur[ing] the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,” the vigorous executive power necessary to defend our nation against foreign enemies was seen by the Framers as a vital precondition to securing those blessings and an integral part of the same libertarian enterprise."

There is more at Rasul v Bush.

It is fascinating to read these documents to consider the especial rigorous legal certitude (and bullshit) which these unfeeling litigous atomatons pick through the cracks of the law, hiding where required in the Constitution and playing fast and loose with international treaties and obligations.

...then you don't have to be smart to tell Monkey boy that as Commander in Chief he can strut about in his Bomber Jacket and do what he fucking well pleases.

More details at Cnet

Enver Hodge - "The Truth will set you Free" - A Damascene revelation

Eric Gorden, genial, bearded and bespectacled , 40 years a hack and now Editor of the Islington Tribune was present with his shorthand notebook and pencil at a meeting last Friday at the London Resource Centre in Holloway Road. He was the invited guest of his friend Labour Party member Chris Roche who introduced him to many of those present .



Ex near neighbour and (and probably ex )friend of the Blairs, Margaret "Enver" Hodge, now a Minister at the Department of Trade & Industry (her 4th Ministerial post) , in a Q & A session after a prepared speech , and a generous spread of nut cutlets and organic yoghurt, told the assembled Fabianistas that the Iraq war had been the Prime Minister's "big mistake in foreign affairs".

She accepted the Prime Minister's arguments about the dangers posed by Iraq in the run-up to the March 2003 invasion because she said in answer to a question - "he was our leader and I trusted him".

Shed of the scales that occluded her vision she singled out Mr Blair's "moral imperialism" - importing British attitudes and ideas to other countries - for particular criticism.

In another fit of truthfulness the Member for one step beyond Dagenham - Barking , whom fans of the blonde bimbo will remember her recruiting cry for the BNP in April before the Local Elections this year.

The Torygraph were deliriously happy to report her claim on April 11th (curiously the 21st Anniversary of the death of her eponymous hero Enver Hoxha) hero that eight out of 10 white people in her east London constituency of Barking were threatening to vote for the far-Right BNP in the local elections.

"They can't get a home for their children, they see black and ethnic minority communities moving in and they are angry,"

Said Mrs Hodge, (then) the employment minister.

"When I knock on doors I say to people, 'are you tempted to vote BNP?' and many, many, many - eight out of 10 of the white families - say 'yes'. That's something we have never seen before, in all my years. Even when people voted BNP, they used to be ashamed to vote BNP. Now they are not."

Mrs Hodge said the pace of ethnic change in her area had frightened people.

"What has happened in Barking and Dagenham is the most rapid transformation of a community we have ever witnessed."

Should the Prime Minister haul her over the coals for her irreverence she might well recall what her guiding light Enver Hoxha told Stalin on his first meeting with Stalin in July 1947 (the year of her birth incidentally) in explaining his problems with internal dissent ..

" .... we still cannot say that internal reaction is no longer active. It is not capable of organizing any really dangerous attack upon us, but still it is making propaganda and mischief against us"

He was also keen to explain to Stalin how British perfidy was even then causing international strife ...

"The Corfu Channel incident," I told Comrade Stalin, "is a concoction of the British from start to finish in order to provoke our country and to find a pretext for military intervention"

Plus ca change ....

EU Carbon Trading a massive failure......Sssscccchhhh!!!

Here is a graph of the EU ETS price i.e the traded price of 1 ton of carbon in Euros - for the last month.

Looks like the market is a huge success having reached the lowest price levels ever. Or as Point Carbon said today (principal booster of this Alice in Wonderland casino) said ..."First-phase CO2 allowances in the EU emissions trading scheme took a dive today as the December 2006 contract lost €0.30 on yesterday to close at €8.60 at 17.30 CET."(Close of biz Friday 17th Nov down 10 cents to €8.60)

Meanwhile the Kyoto bandwagon rolled merrily along in Nairobi with the gravy train riders persisting in the illusion that carbon trading is going to prove effective - so far it's success is to take money from the credulous and place it in the capacious pockets of share boosters, consultants, lawyers and oher snake oil merchants.