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POPSGore Shamelessly Exploits Burma's Disaster 
PROBLEM #4 HE PROFITS PERSONALLY FROM CARBON TRADING SCHEMES The Green Growth Fund will provide its portfolio companies with both global perspective and global reach, which includes the benefit of KPCB’s Asian presence through its KPCB China Fund. The KPCB Green Growth Fund will also enable the firm to extend its existing collaboration with the London-based Generation Investment Management, whose chairman Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States and Nobel Laureate, joined KPCB as Partner last year. Through their alliance, the firms actively work together to find, fund and accelerate green solutions with the greatest potential to help solve the climate crisis. Generation co-founder and Managing Partner David Blood said, “There is a significant gap between the capital needed and the capital currently deployed to create enduring solutions to the climate crisis. http://tomnelson.blogspot.com/2008/05/al-gore-continues-his-brazen-efforts-to.html
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POPS Analyst Warns of $200/Barrel Oil* *One barrel of crude oil is 42 gallons (or $4.76 per gallon) In the Cato-at-Liberty blog post "Is There an Oil Price Bubble?" Cato senior fellow Jerry Taylor writes: "The most recent Fed actions to combat the deteriorating state of the macroeconomy added even more fuel to the oil price fire. With market actors increasingly convinced that the Fed is willing to entertain inflation in the course of injecting liquidity into the market, investors are looking for investments to hedge against inflation. And what do you know? Returns on commodities have historically been better during inflationary periods than during non-inflationary periods. Ben Bernanke thus sent another strong infusion of cash into commodity futures -- again, largely into oil and gas futures.
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POPSChinese Nuclear Submarines Prompt 'New Cold War' Warning ”The main source of friction is Taiwan and you cannot rule out a nationalistic military faction coming to power to taking a punt to have a quick go.” Chinese defence expenditure is estimated by the Pentagon to be $50 billion (£25 billion) but analysts believe large chunks of the budget are “squirreled away” and it could be as high as $200 billion making it the second largest in the world after America.
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POPSChina from Above with rare photo of snow-covered Great Wall Incredible photography by George Steinmetz for National Geographic http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/05/china/aerials/steinmetz-photography 1. The terraced farms of the Lisu people, one one of China's minority groups, create a patchwork on mountains near Weixi in Yunnan Province. 2. The Great Wall of China 3. In Guangxi, limestone pinnacles line the Li River. 4. Blooming fields of rapeseed plants weave around hills near Luoping in Yunnan Province. 5. sand dunes in the Kumtag Desert located in the Xinjiang region 6. Taklimakan oil field in the Xinjiang region 7. Guandong Province toulou, the traditional dwellings of the Hakka minority group 8. a new suburban development in Shenyang (thanks, openthink)
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POPSChina Sentences 17 For Alleged Involvement In Tibet Riots "Monks have been taught legal knowledge in recent days and the monastery has resumed normal religious activities," Tenzin Namgyal, deputy director of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee, was quoted as saying. Other monasteries that were closed will be reopened soon, he said.
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POPSBush Raises Temp On Global Warming Granted, President Bush doesn't intend for his simple decision to offer legislation to regulate carbon emissions to have such catastrophic consequences. But then, by this point, he should be quite familiar with the concept of unintended consequences. And he needs to recognize that he cannot pass "sensible" legislation. (I have serious doubts that any legislation on this topic could be sensible.) All he can do is set the stage for next year's legislation by giving away the rhetorical store and weakening the already modest backbone of Republican legislators. The liberal world order will not let go of their global warming assault on free economies until hell freezes over -- by which point, obviously, the global warming theory will be visibly disproved.
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POPSAn Angry China Is Lashing Out At Foreign Critics Internet demands for boycotts have unnerved some foreign companies. Following the Olympic flame's troubled passage through Paris on April 7, activists called on Chinese citizens to boycott Carrefour, a French supermarket chain that is the largest foreign retailer in China, starting on May 1. Anonymous mobile phone text messages accuse the retailer of backing the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing blames for instigating unrest in Tibet, a charge the retailer denies. Many Chinese are incensed that a pro-Tibet protester in Paris lunged to snatch the torch from Chinese athlete Jin Jing, who was in a wheelchair. State television in China has portrayed Jin as a hero for hanging onto the torch.
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POPSA Coup For The Kiwis Forced to adjust to new economic realities, New Zealand farmers cut costs, diversified their land use, sought non-farm income opportunities and altered production as market signals advised — for example, by reducing sheep numbers and boosting cattle ranching. Farmers were aided on the cost side as input prices fell, because suppliers could no longer count on subsidies to inflate demand.
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POPS“Journey of Harmony” of the Olympic Torch Of Shame (continued) wretched political environs. Handling the politics of the Olympics will clearly be a matter of some delicacy. The Chinese ambassador in London may yet absent herself from today’s event. Gordon Brown and his cabinet should do likewise. The British, led by Tessa Jowell, the ensnared Olympics minister, periodically intone their “concern for civil rights in China” as if it were a Buddhist mantra. It makes no difference. From the moment the Games were awarded to Beijing, all involved knew they risked becoming quislings to the Chinese cause. China last week welcomed the British government as a member of something called the Olympic family. If this is a family, I hope that for the next four months it is an intensely unhappy one.
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POPSChina Has Provided IAEA With Intel On Iran's Nuke Program VIENNA, Austria — China, an opponent of harsh U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran, has nonetheless recently provided the International Atomic Energy Agency with intelligence linked to Tehran's alleged attempts to make nuclear arms, diplomats have told The Associated Press. In a summary recently forwarded to the AP, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an opposition group that claims to have informants inside the Iranian government, identified three others as Revolutionary Guard commander Fereydoon Abbasi, Seyed Jaber Safdari and Mohammed Mehdi Nejad-Nouri. It said the three and others are involved in clandestine nuclear weapons-related research at three Iranian universities: Beheshti; Malek Ahstar and Imam Hossein. Asked for verification, a senior diplomat of an IAEA member state said that a fact check run by his country's relevant agency showed the claims to be generally accurate. Another senior diplomat also said the information appeared to be fairly reliabl
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POPSSecurity Concerns Block China’s 3Com Deal The withdrawal of the bid by Dubai Ports World occurred not because the foreign investment committee rejected it but because of a torrent of criticism from Capitol Hill, around the same time that similar criticism of a deal by the Chinese state energy company to buy Unocal also led China to withdraw. Meanwhile, the problems of the 3Com deal are sure to aggravate tensions with China. This month, federal officials charged a Defense Department official with passing classified documents to China. In a separate case, the Justice Department arrested a former Boeing engineer in California on charges of economic espionage for the Chinese. The Treasury Department adamantly opposes extending the curbs on foreign investments into areas that affect economic security as opposed to national security, though it says it will monitor growing foreign investments in whole sectors of the economy, even in the financial sector.
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POPSWhy do Palestinians get more attention than Tibetans? Prager: "The first reason is terror. The Palestinian leadership decided, with the support of the Palestinian people, that murdering as many innocent people was the fastest way to garner world attention. They were right. On the other hand, as The Economist notes in its March 28, 2008 issue, "Tibetan nationalists have hardly ever resorted to terrorist tactics…" It is interesting to speculate how the world would have reacted had Tibetans hijacked international flights, slaughtered Chinese citizens in Chinese restaurants and temples, on Chinese buses and trains, and massacred Chinese schoolchildren." The second reason is oil and support from Arabs. The Palestinians have the unqualified support of all Middle Eastern oil-producing nations and the support of the Muslim world. The Tibetans are poor and have the support of no nations, let alone oil-producing ones.
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POPSTop British Scientist Warns Against Biofuels This now threatens to reverse a half century of gains not only against world hunger, but also in holding the line against conversion of undeveloped land. This is partly due to the diversion of corn to biofuels. ... Meanwhile, European demand for biofuels to replace gasoline is fueling plans for massive clearing of rainforests for palm-oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia. ... Ironically, much of the hysteria over global warming is itself fueled by concerns that it may drive numerous species to extinction and increase hunger worldwide, especially in developing countries. Yet the biofuel solution would only make bad matters worse on both counts."
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POPSChinese Man Sentenced In Aegis Secrets Case Investigators said they found three encrypted CDs in the couple’s luggage that contained documents on a submarine propulsion system, a solid-state power switch for ships and a PowerPoint presentation on the future of power electronics. Mak’s wife, Rebecca Laiwah Chiu, pleaded guilty last year on the eve of her trial to one count of acting as a foreign agent without registering with the U.S. government. She is serving three years in federal prison and will be deported upon release. His brother, Tai Mak, pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to violate export control laws in exchange for a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Tai Mak’s wife, Fuk Li, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the violation of export control laws and received three years of probation. Yui “Billy” Mak, the son of Tai Mak and Fuk Li, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the violation of export control laws and was sentenced to time already served. The three will also be deported.
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POPSEU To Consider Beijing Olympics Boycott Attempts to link unrest in Tibet to the Olympics is likely to enrage the Chinese government, which had hoped the games would be a showcase for the country’s economic progress rather than a lightening rod for criticisms of its political system. Taiwan’s President-elect Ma Ying-jeou said on Sunday after his landslide election victory that the Dalai Lama would be welcome to visit the island and repeated comments that Taiwanese athletes might not participate in the Olympics if the situation in Tibet worsens. Meanwhile, Cardinal Joseph Zen, the highest ranking Chinese cleric in the Roman Catholic Church, called on China to avoid acts of violence that might spoil its hosting of the Olympics.
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POPSChinese Dissidents Urge Beijing Talks With Dalai Lama China is damaging its own international credibility by prohibiting journalists from entering its Tibetan regions, the dissidents added. Yesterday the official Chinese media alleged that the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, was manipulating the protests in a bid to take the Beijing Olympics “hostage.” The administrative leader of Tibet, Qiangba Puncog, was quoted as saying that China must completely defeat “secessionist forces” to “ensure a successful Olympic Games.”
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POPS Obama Eyes Active Role In Oil Markets Grumet said Obama supported a global carbon market and would seek to link a U.S. emissions trading system with the established European one "as soon as possible," though he would make establishing a U.S. program to fight warming and agreeing an international climate change treaty his top priorities. Grumet said Obama would push the biofuel industry to move into second-generation fuels made from waste and advance beyond ethanol produced by corn to avoid the "food or fuel" debate. "For this to really be a significant contribution to increasing our energy security, we're going to have to move beyond corn," he said. Grumet, head of the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center in addition to advising the Obama campaign, said the oil industry had "concentrated incredible market power in a small number of companies" in a way that caused alarm.
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POPSDalai Lama Appeals For Calm In Tibet The Dalai Lama may be able to control his own hatred. But he can't control that of his followers "Of course I am angry, when I see my people get hurt," a Tibetan monk in Kumbum in Qinghai, China, told a television network. Over the weekend monks at the Kumbum monestary held demonstrations in the streets. Since then, though, the Chinese military has surrounded the monastery, and the monks haven't dared repeat their protests. "People are not treated equally in this country," the monk said. Chinese see the protestors as the criminals. Recognizing the possibility that things may get out of control, the Dalai Lama reiterated a stance he took during the last mass protests in Tibet in the late 1980s: that he step down as head of the government in exile if his followers abandoned his non-violent philosophy.
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POPSTo Die For NAFTA Hillary won Ohio denouncing the NAFTA deal Bill Clinton cut. The lady gets it. McCain admits to knowing almost nothing about economics and is now being advised by my old friend Jack Kemp. In a Wall Street Journal essay bemoaning my views, Kemp concedes, "I'm on the advisory board of Toyota North America and now drive a hybrid Lexus." Ex-secretaries of state and Cabinet officers, ex-senators and congressmen, and ex-White House aides are getting rich working for foreigners who are carting off American jobs, American technology, American markets, American factories -- and America's future. Look at the Bush-McCain record: $4 trillion in trade deficits, $2.5 trillion in manufactures alone. One in every six manufacturing jobs, 3 million, gone. With America borrowing $2 billion a day to pay for foreign goods, we have seen a collapse of the dollar, the price of gold quadruple to $1,000 an ounce, oil soar to $107 a barrel and gas heading toward $4 a gallon.
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POPSA Ravenous Dragon Chinese companies will inevitably find themselves in fierce competition with Western ones for natural resources, as they must if global markets are to work efficiently. For the most part, however, they do not operate very differently from their peers. To the extent that the Chinese government does subsidise oil production, it helps to bring down the price for everyone else (its subsidies for oil consumption are another matter). As the world's biggest consumer of many commodities, China naturally wants to ensure a steady supply of them to keep its economy going. But markets for commodities are global, and the risk of any one consumer cornering supplies, or securing them at a lower price, is negligible. this special report will argue that concerns about the dire consequences of China's quest for natural resources are overblown. China does indeed treat some dictators with kid gloves, but it is hardly alone in that. Its companies do not always uphold the highest standards, but many...
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POPSFoiled Terror Plot Targeted Beijing Summer Olympics Games Terrorism experts say it has become influential among extremist groups using the Internet to raise funds and find recruits. Chinese forces reported raiding an ETIM training camp last year and killing 18 militants allegedly linked to al-Qaida and the Taliban. Wang said security forces would take pro-active measures to crush terrorism, religious extremism, and separatism. «From what we presently know, this was an attempt to crash the plane,» Bekri said. «Because this incident just occurred, questions as to who these people were, where they came from what their goal was, what kind of background, we are currently investigating. Once we've investigated clearly, I believe you will then know,» Bekri said. He said the crew responded and the plane made an emergency landing in the western city of Lanzhou with no damage or injuries. He said it continued to its original destination, Beijing, after about one hour. A man who answered the phone said the incident was under investigation,
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POPSChina's Missiles Other new weapons that are part of the precision-guided missile arsenal are advanced cruise missiles, medium-range ballistic missiles, the direct ascent anti-satellite missiles, like the one tested in January 2007.
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POPSGovernment's Crack-Down On Beijing's Cats China's leaders are convinced that animals pose a serious urban health risk and may have contributed to the outbreak of SARS - a deadly respiratory virus - in 2003. Paranoia is so intense that six stray cats -including two pregnant females - were beaten to death with sticks by teachers at a Beijing kindergarten, who feared they might pass illnesses to the children. Cat owners, terrified by the disease warning, are dumping their pets in the streets to be picked up by special collection teams. But the crackdown on cats is seen by animal campaigners as just one of a number of extreme measures being taken by communist leaders to ensure that its capital appears clean, green and welcoming during the Olympics. Taxi drivers have been made to attend lessons in how to greet passengers politely in English and a city-wide courtesy campaign has been launched to teach Beijing's notoriously dour and grumpy citizens how to smile and be pleasant to foreigners.
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POPSChinese Hackers:"We Hack Into The Pentagon" "These young hackers are tolerated by the regime provided that they do not conduct attacks inside of China", he adds. One of the biggest problems experts say is trying to prove where a cyber attack originates from, and that they say allows hackers like Xiao Chen to operate in a virtual world of deniability. And across China, there could be thousands just like him, all trying to prove themselves against some of the most secure Web sites in the world. At a congressional hearing in Washington last week, administration officials testified that the government's cyber initiative has fallen far short of what is required. Most alarming, the officials said, there has never been a full At a congressional hearing in Washington last week, administration officials testified that the government's cyber initiative has fallen far short of what is required. Most alarming, the officials said, there has never been a full damage assessment of federal agency networks.
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POPSClinton Branded A "Monster">Part2 Civil War Begins In response, a Clinton adviser said the attack reminded him of the witch-hunt led by special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, which led to the impeachment of her husband, Bill, when he was president. Earlier, clearly rattled by the Ohio defeat, Ms Power told The Scotsman Mrs Clinton was stopping at nothing to try to seize the lead from her candidate. In recent days, the former first lady argued that Mr Obama was getting a free ride with the media and had hinted he was not ready to be commander-in-chief in a crisis. Mrs Clinton, asked about her national security qualifications, highlighted a series of events in which she played a role, including peace talks in Northern Ireland, the Kosovo refugee crisis and standing up for women's rights in China.
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POPSGlobal Muslim Networks, The Gulen Movement Amazingly enough, the Gulen movement has built up a significant presence in northern Iraq, through schools, a hospital and (soon) a university. Although this arena of Turkish-Kurdish conflict is not the easiest environment for a Turkish-based institution, the movement has deftly built up relationships with all the region's ethnic and religious groups. The influence that the Gulen movement has quietly accumulated would be a surprise to some veteran observers of Islam. Asked to name the world's most active Islamic network, many a pundit would think first of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose reach has extended a long way from Egypt, where it began in the 1920s as a movement of resistance to the twin evils of secularism and colonialism. And it remains true that in every Western country (including the United States) where Muslims are politically active, the influence of the brotherhood—or at least of movements that grew out it—is palpable.
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POPSTime For America To Extricate Itself From Such A Potentially Disastrous Predicament "It would be unwise for the United States to risk war with an emerging great power like China to defend a small client state that is merely a peripheral interest. That would be true even if that client state were making a serious effort to provide for its own defense. But Taiwan is not willing to make a serious defense effort. It is time for America to extricate itself from such a potentially disastrous predicament."
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POPSChina's Army Builds For Reach Past Taiwan, U.S. Says Other Contingencies The report concludes that China is thinking beyond Taiwan. ``Analysis of China's military acquisitions and strategic thinking suggests Beijing is also developing capabilities for use in other contingencies, such as conflict over resources or disputed territories,'' it says. Cyber Warfare The report also says that China is increasing its capabilities in space and cyberwarfare. ``In both those areas there's reason for concern,'' said David Sedney, assistant secretary of defense for East Asia. The system will be operational in the next two to three weeks, he said. He noted that no one in China ``picked up the phone'' when U.S. officials called after a B-2 bomber accidentally bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in May 1999.
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POPSUnwrapping The EU Climate Package You may say that these are anomalies against the trend, but we seem to have an awful lot of anomalies and not very much trend. "Isn't it true that we are relying on predictions from computer models which are increasingly at odds with reality, and that based on those predictions we are putting in place policies which will do huge damage to European economies, and impoverish our grandchildren?". The guy from the WWF booed. Commissioner Dimas muttered a long reply which contained a lot about the IPCC and the Stern report, nothing at all about the actual climate data . And a footnote on sea ice. Two months ago there was no sea ice south of Greenland. Today my jet flew over the North Atlantic about 400 nm south of the south cape of Greenland, and there was sea ice as far as the eye could see, extending all the way to Newfoundland. This hasn't been seen for many years. A very strong La Nina indeed, helped along by the eerily-prolonged solar minimum.
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POPSThe Verdict Is In: Earth In Midst Of Widescale Global Cooling DailyTech describes the last twelve months have seen a long drop in world temperatures that literally wipes out a century of warming. Meteorologist Anthony Watts compiled the results of all the sources. Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on.
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POPSMilk Cost Up 21% -- Ethanol Subsidies And China Behind It Go to the grocery store and pick up a carton of milk. Milk costs 21% more than it did a year ago, according to a story in today's USA Today. Milk costs more because corn costs more. The interconnected forces of the global economy, global climate change, global terrorism and global energy supply are on display, every day, in every grocery store across America. You just have to look for them.
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POPSAFGHAN WINTER CLAIMS NEARLY 1000 LIVES::SNOW IN SAN DIEGO *IT AIN'T GETTING WARMER, ANYMORE. *FIRST SNOW IN SAN DIEGO IN 5 YEARS. *MOST SNOW IN EUROPE IN 50 YEARS. *MOST SNOW EVER IN MIDWEST. *COLDEST DAY EVER IN USA. *COLDEST, SNOWIEST WINTER IN CHINA IN 100. *COLDEST, SNOWIEST WINTER IN CENTRAL ASIA AND TURKEY, TOO.
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POPS"False hopes?" Obama told a crowd "There's no such thing." Meanwhile the authoritarian Putin has punkishly succeeded in restoring Russia to its inglorious heritage, reminding the world of the old formula that capitalism plus state power equals fascism. In Iran, none of Ahmadinejad's domestic troubles seem to have modified the state's sense of ascendancy, or its will to nuclearize itself, or its appetite for instability in its region. In Iraq, the streets are safer but the sects are not sweeter. In the Korean peninsula, diplomacy has gone ominously cold. In Palestine there are two Palestines, and one of them belongs to Hamas. In Darfur--well, you know, because everybody knows. In Latin America, the failures of liberal economics have sullied the reputation of liberal politics. And so on. And into this unirenic environment strides Obama, pledging to extract us promptly from Iraq and to negotiate with our enemies. What is the role of a conciliator in an unconciliating world?
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POPSBritish Olympic Athletes Forced To "KowTow" To Chinese Regime The controversial decision to award the Olympics to Beijing means this year's Games have the potential to be the most politically charged since 1936. Read more... * Shameful picture of England squad giving Nazi salute still haunts British sport. Why, 70 years later, do we still suck up to dictators? Adolf Hitler used the Munich Games that year to glorify his Nazi regime, although his claims of Aryan superiority were undermined by black American athlete Jesse Owens winning four gold medals. More recently, there was a mass boycott of the 1980 Games in Moscow in protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
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POPSThe Hysteria Formerly Known As Global Warming Kenneth Tapping, a solar researcher and project director for Canada's National Research Council, is among those looking at the sun for evidence of an increase in sunspot activity. Solar activity fluctuates in an 11-year cycle. But so far in this cycle, the sun has been disturbingly quiet. The lack of increased activity could signal the beginning of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century. Such an event occurred in the 17th century. The observation of sunspots showed extraordinarily low levels of magnetism on the sun, with little or no 11-year cycle. This solar hibernation corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715. Frigid winters and cold summers during that period led to massive crop failures, famine and death in Northern Europe.
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POPS Hillary Clinton's Massive Conflict Of Interest And it is for exactly this kind of situation that the Clintons should be required to divulge the extent of their involvement with foreign interests and exactly how much money their personal bank accounts and their Library/Foundation have received. Hillary and Bill have also refused to release their income tax returns, despite the fact that Bill willingly released his when he was running for president. Why hasn’t Barack Obama or John Edwards even mentioned this issue? Their attacks on Hillary’s links to lobbyists and other special interes ts are usually painted with a broad brush. But the journey of America’s banks abroad in search of a bailout makes this specific conflict a key question of policy and highly relevant to their campaigns. What better illustration could one have of Hillary’s conflicts of interest than this one?
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