Puppet MastersS


Mr. Potato

BBC slammed for false coverage of climate change


Press TV
Wed, 02 Apr 2014 16:53 UTC
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© PressTV
A UK parliamentary committee has released a damning report, criticizing the state-run British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for its unbalanced and false coverage of climate change.

The report by the parliamentary Science and Technology Committee found that the BBC had used unqualified experts instead of scientists to give their views on the issue.

In addition, the committee said the BBC's use of climate lobbyists has blurred the lines between scientific facts and belief-based opinions.
Committee chair Andrew Miller said it was "disappointing that the BBC does not ensure all of its programs and presenters reflect the actual state of science in its output," adding, BBC's news teams, including Radio 4's Today program "continue to make mistakes in their coverage of climate science by giving opinions and scientific fact the same weight."

Comment: Why does the BBC treat us like morons over climate change? says The Daily Telegraph, UK...

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Briefcase

$6 Billion unaccounted for at State Department

Brianna Ehley
The Fiscal Times
Fri, 04 Apr 2014 20:45 UTC
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© Fiscal Times
The State Department has no idea what happened to $6 billion used to pay its contractors.

In a special "management alert" made public Thursday, the State Department's Inspector General Steve Linick warned "significant financial risk and a lack of internal control at the department has led to billions of unaccounted dollars over the last six years.

The alert was just the latest example of the federal government's continued struggle with oversight over its outside contractors.

The lack of oversight "exposes the department to significant financial risk," the auditor said. "It creates conditions conducive to fraud, as corrupt individuals may attempt to conceal evidence of illicit behavior by omitting key documents from the contract file. It impairs the ability of the Department to take effective and timely action to protect its interests, and, in tum, those of taxpayers."
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Chess

Don't Poke the Bear: Russia tightens squeeze on Ukraine with gas price rise

Vladimir Soldatkin
Reuters
Thu, 03 Apr 2014 18:49 UTC
Gazprom and Medvedev
© Reuters/Dmitry Astakhov/Ria NovostiRussia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (L) meets with Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller in Moscow, April 3, 2014
* Price discount was agreed before political crisis
* Gazprom says Ukraine's gas debt is $1.7 billion
* Naftogaz chief to visit Moscow this week

Russian natural gas producer Gazprom announced a more than 40 percent increase in the price of gas for Ukraine on Tuesday, stepping up economic pressure on Kiev in its crisis in relations with Moscow.

Price rows have in the past led to cuts in Russian gas supplies to Ukraine and decreases in onward deliveries to Europe, but this time the financial blow to Kiev is set to be cushioned by a new International Monetary Fund loan package.

Comment: Since the elected president of Ukraine has been ousted by the NATO/U.S. coup and replaced by same with a fascist dictatorship, there's no reason for Moscow to keep promises made with the previous president. Plus the new regime has agreed to IMF's "financial rescue".

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Dollar Gold

President Obama + one-day visit to Brussels = $1.5M hotel bill

Jeryl Bier
The Weekly Standard
Fri, 04 Apr 2014 12:02 UTC
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© The Hotel
In late March, President Obama took a week-long trip through Europe which included a stop of less than 24 hours in Brussels, Belgium for meetings with the European Union and NATO. The president stayed at The Hotel, a twenty-seven story hotel in the center of the city. The estimated cost for the president's stay, including about two weeks for an advance team, was $1,522,646.36.
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Document

House Bill seeks data on U.S. drone strike victims' identities

Jason Ditz
Antiwar.com
Wed, 02 Apr 2014 15:26 UTC
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© Press TVFile photo shows the aftermath of a US assassination drone attack in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region.
Reps. Walter Jones (R - NC) and Adam Schiff (D - CA) have co-sponsored a new bill, the Targeted Lethal Force Transparency Act, which aims to require the Obama Administration to issue annual reports on the use of drone strikes, including a figure of how many civilians they killed in those attacks.

Though President Obama has repeatedly promised "overhauls" and transparency measures on the drone programs, Congress remains more or less in the dark about who is being killed and why, with Rep. Jones saying this move would be the first step toward serious oversight of the drone program.

Ignorance may well be bliss, however, and the two face an uphill battle, with Council on Foreign Relations official Micah Zenko saying he doesn't say any way the bill passes, adding "these are CIA operations that are covert by definition."
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Arrow Down

Peer reviewed paper says it's OK to manipulate data, exaggerate climate claims!

Anthony Watts
WattsUpWithThat
Fri, 04 Apr 2014 15:04 UTC
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© SOTT.net
Noble cause corruption gone wild. People tend to think of scientists as being unbiased, in climate science, apparently if you aren't biased, you aren't doing useful work.

From CFACT: A new peer-reviewed paper published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, titled "Information Manipulation and Climate Agreements", is openly advocating that global warming proponents engage in mendacious claims in order to further their cause.

The paper appears to openly advocates "information manipulation" to further the cause of man-made global warming and "enhance global welfare."

The authors, Assistant Professors of Economics Fuhai Hong and Xiaojian Zhao, note how the media and environmental groups "exaggerate" global warming and then the offer their paper to "provide a rationale for this tendency" to exaggerate for the good of the cause.

The paper was published on February 24, 2014.

The author's boldly note in the abstract of the study that the "news media and some pro-environmental have the tendency to accentuate or even exaggerate the damage caused by climate change. This article provides a rationale for this tendency."

"We find that the information manipulation has an instrumental value, as it ex post induces more countries to participate in an IEA (International Environmental Agreement) which will eventually enhance global welfare."

The authors of the paper, Fuhai Hong is an assistant professor in the Division of Economics, Nanyang Technological University. Xiaojian Zhao is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

The complete Abstract of the paper is reproduced below:
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Star of David

"Language itself has been colonized" - Criminalizing criticism of Israel in Canada

Michael Keefer
Global Research
Wed, 02 Apr 2014 12:39 UTC

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The international campaign calling for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, as a peaceful means of persuading that state to abandon its systematic violations of international law and its policies of apartheid dispossession, colonization, and blockade in the occupied Palestinian territories, has recently enjoyed a burgeoning number of successes.1

In early February 2014, The Economist noted that BDS "is turning mainstream,"2 and former Israeli Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg wrote in Haaretz that the "BDS movement is gaining momentum and is approaching the turning point [.... at which] sanctions against Israel will become a fait accompli."3
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Dollars

Iran, Russia working to seal $20 bln oil-for-goods deal - Creating a Dollar-free world

Tyler Durden
Zerohedge
Wed, 02 Apr 2014 15:56 UTC
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© Unknown
Spot what is missing in the just blasted headline from Bloomberg:

Iran, Russia Said To Seal $20B Oil-For-Goods Deal: Reuters

If you said the complete absence of US Dollars anywhere in the funds flow you are correct. Which is precisely what we have been warning would happen the more the West and/or JPMorgan pushed Russia into a USD-free corner.

Once again, from our yesterday comment on the JPM Russian blockade: "what JPM may have just done is launch a preemptive strike which would have the equivalent culmination of a SWIFT blockade of Russia, the same way Iran was neutralized from the Petrodollar and was promptly forced to begin transacting in Rubles, Yuan and, of course, gold in exchange for goods and services either imported or exported. One wonders: is JPM truly that intent in preserving its "pristine" reputation of not transacting with "evil Russians", that it will gladly light the fuse that takes away Russia's choice whether or not to depart the petrodollar voluntarily, and makes it a compulsory outcome, which incidentally will merely accelerate the formalization of the Eurasian axis of China, Russia and India?"
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Quenelle

Israel is an unprincipled entity! Pollard, Kerry, and peace

Jamal Kanj
Sott.net
Fri, 04 Apr 2014 10:11 UTC
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I remember standing outside the White House lawn on March 26 1979, protesting the signing of Camp David accord between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and the ex-wanted British terrorist turned Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. An Egyptian speaker addressed his president across the street "If You Feel No Shame Then Do As You Wish."

Today, the "feel no shame" Israeli leaders are able to do "as they wish" with unparalleled brazen impunity.

US Secretary of State John Kerry offered Israel an upfront Palestinian commitment to forgo their rights of joining UN organizations for nine months. In turn, Israel pledged to release 104 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.

Palestinians kept their word and delivered, Israel reneged. In a last minute maneuver it added a new condition. Not on the Palestinians this time but on the US demanding the release of Jewish American Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.
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Calculator

Bankrupt Ukraine does not pay for gas, waiting for Russian loan


ITAR-TASS
Fri, 04 Apr 2014 09:08 UTC
Yuriy Prodan
© ITAR-TASS/Vladimir Sindeev Russia has not fulfilled its obligations under the gas contract says Ukrainian parliament-appointed energy and coal mining industry minister Yuriy Prodan
In Ukraine's view, Russia has not fulfilled its obligations under the gas contract, as it has not provided the promised $15 billion loan in full, Ukrainian parliament-appointed energy and coal mining industry minister Yuriy Prodan said in an interview on "Rain" television.

"There were obligations and agreements. Among the agreements of 2013 were obligations of the Russian side to provide a $15 billion loan for Ukraine. You know, the first part,$3 billion, was given in December 2013, and Ukraine received it. The second part was to come in February 2014. Russia also assumed an obligation to give a $2 billion loan. There were agreements and obligations of the Ukrainian side that the money would be paid by Ukraine for gas," Prodan said. "There were such agreements. Now we are looking for official confirmation of the agreements."

Comment: The new illegitimate rulers in Kiev want everything: power to rule, submission of the Ukrainian people and money from Russia, the EU, the US, the World Bank and the IMF. On top of it they also want to be members of the EU and NATO and to take Russias vacant seat at the G8.

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