time*treat's Blog

What say you? I'll let the words speak for themselves.

(2:20 duration) http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cec_1257902175

http://missionlocal.org/2009/11/pge-wants-efficient-users-to-pay-more/

Tree huggers be warned: Soon you may be picking up part of the energy bill for the neighbors who leave all the lights on.

In a recent application to the state, Pacific Gas and Electric asked to raise service rates by 5 percent for their best energy-conserving customers, typically smaller households.

The reason? To give price breaks of 2.5 to 5.7 percent to their biggest energy clients who use between 131 and 300 percent or more than the baseline monthly average.

PG&E uses a five-tier system to differentiate their customers. The system is supposed to promote efficiency by charging lower rates to customers who use the least amount of energy.

But the company, with corporate profits up 4.6 percent in the third quarter of this year, said they’re just trying to be fair.

“It’s necessary to avoid the continued shifting of costs associated with utility services to a limited set of residential customers,” said PG&E spokesperson Joe Molica.

Consumer advocates say the plan runs counter to PG&E’s expressed goal of increasing conservation.

“PG&E seems to be working off the theory that financial incentives produce energy efficiency,” said Mindy Spatt, communications director for the Utilities Reform Network, “but that clearly isn’t the case with this proposal.”

The rate increase comes on the heels of Senate Bill 695, which reversed legislation passed in response to the 2001 energy crisis and eventual Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization of PG&E. The cost of the bankruptcy reorganization, the 10th largest in U.S. history, was passed on to consumers.

Since that time, energy-conserving customers have benefited from a state-imposed freeze on further rate hikes, while high energy users have seen their bills go up an average of 2.1 percent each year, according to the company.

In an effort to meet a Dec. 17 deadline, the company has requested the California Public Utilities Commission to expedite their request by limiting the time the public has to file complaints against the increase.

If approved by the state, the proposed increase would take place Jan. 1, 2010, along with a bundle of other rate hikes the company negotiated with the state three years ago.
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See pages 2 & 3.  http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/efile/A/108373.pdf

Two things I have to make clear....
1) This happened in summer 2001
2) It was part of an "exercise", not a real event

I'm posting it because I found the scripting of the videos interesting... or maybe "familiar" is a better word.

Just the vids (all together 7 mins)
http://www.livevideo.com/video/embedLink/A207012237254F63B3D841A9260FE612/284811/scripted-tv-news-clips-for-the.aspx

Separate vids and other info:
http://www.terrorisminfo.mipt.org/Dark-Winter.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Dark_Winter

Oh, wait, she's already employed by a gov't that actually wants to protect its citizens.
Either that, or she wasn't offered shares.
Jump to 7:15. Subtitled throughout.

Wonder how her career prospects are looking, after this.

http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20091103/mtl_childrens_er091104/20091104/?hub=MontrealHome

A 42-year-old Quebec woman has died from complications resulting from the H1N1 virus.

It is the third death in the province since September.

The woman, who worked at the Monteregie Health and Social Services Centre, died Tuesday night.

Public health officials said the woman was not a nurse or front line worker who was in contact with patients.

She had also received the H1N1 vaccination on Oct. 29, two days before coming down with symptoms of the flu.

(Waaaiiit a minute. That last line shouldn't be part of the story,  right?)

Being entitled to a job provided by someone else seems to be a religion, too. Would anyone believe that just over 100 years ago, the U.K. was the nation whose empire the sun never set on?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6494213/Climate-change-belief-given-same-legal-status-as-religion.html

An executive has won the right to sue his employer on the basis that he was unfairly dismissed for his green views after a judge ruled that environmentalism had the same weight in law as religious and philosophical beliefs.

In a landmark ruling, Mr Justice Michael Burton said that "a belief in man-made climate change ... is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of the 2003 Religion and Belief Regulations".

The ruling could open the door for employees to sue their companies for failing to account for their green lifestyles, such as providing recycling facilities or offering low-carbon travel.

V For Vendetta: A Study of the Rise of Fascism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzLZsY1oJd4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfKCqpbG9S8

Did anyone notice the DDoS attack on some of the MoneyBomb sites, today?
Boy, those "mainstream" guys sure play straight.

I kid you not. Jump to 3:00 mark. Canadian Healthcare

Can't you hardly wait for it to come to your state?

... emphasis on "scare"

CFR symposium podcast (8:20)

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=23a_1257107005

Well, the participants seemed to think things were awfully funny, at 5:30.

http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINN2149238420091021

Thu Oct 22, 2009
Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens told Congress on Wednesday that U.S. energy companies are "entitled" to some of Iraq's crude because of the large number of American troops that lost their lives fighting in the country and the U.S. taxpayer money spent in Iraq.

Boone, speaking to the newly formed Congressional Natural Gas Caucus, complained that the Iraqi government has awarded contracts to foreign companies, particularly Chinese firms, to develop Iraq's vast reserves while American companies have mostly been shut out.

"They're opening them (oil fields) up to other companies all over the world ... We're entitled to it," Pickens said of Iraq's oil. "Heck, we even lost 5,000 of our people, 65,000 injured and a trillion, five hundred billion dollars."

President Barack Obama has pledged to withdraw U.S. troops in Iraq.

"We leave there with the Chinese getting the oil," Pickens said.

Iraq's Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani told a Washington conference on Wednesday that his government was happy with the energy auction it held earlier this year. The auction was the first chance for foreign oil firms to compete for Iraqi oil since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

"We're pleased with scale and participation of the IOC (International Oil Companies) and the transparent and public competition," Shahristani said at a U.S.-Iraq business and investment conference.

BP and the Chinese oil company CNPC were the only firms to win a contract in Iraq's bid round this summer, the first chance for foreign oil firms to compete for Iraqi oil since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Seven other oil and gas fields failed to attract bidders on the terms Iraq offered.

But a consortium headed by Italy's ENI said last week it signed a deal to develop the giant Zubair field for a remuneration fee of $2 a barrel. At Iraq's oilfield auction in June, the consortium refused to go below $4.40 a barrel.

Two consortiums are still competing for a deal to develop the even larger West Quran oilfield. They are Russia's LUKOIL and ConocoPhillips and another consortium headed by Exxon Mobil

links at www.youtube.com/watch?v=G97s0MwLwY0

links at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8nJY839EaQ

http://list.cagle.com/etoon.aspx?cartoon=/news/Halloween09/images/varvel.jpg

Another story NOT on your tell-a-lie-and-obscure-your-vision

http://en.rian.ru/business/20091028/156617011.html

ANKARA, October 28 (RIA Novosti) - Turkey is switching to national currencies in trade with Iran and China, ending dependence on the U.S. dollar and the euro for about 20% of its commodity turnover, local media reported on Wednesday.

Turkey has already switched to settlements in national currencies with Russia amid weakening confidence in the greenback as the world's major reserve currency. The move was initiated by Turkish President Abdullah Gul during his visit to Moscow in February.

Turkey's decision to make settlements with Iran and China in national currencies was announced during a visit to Iran by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish premier told a Turkish-Iranian business forum on Tuesday that the countries had prepared a legal framework for transition to settlements in national currencies.

"We have adopted a necessary legislative act and are prepared for the transition," the Turkish newspaper Milliyet quoted Erdogan as saying.

According to the paper, Turkey's trade with Russia, Iran and China exceeds $65 billion a year. Russia is Turkey's largest trade partner, with $37.8 billion commodity turnover registered last year.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on October 14 that Russia was ready to consider using the Russian and Chinese national currencies instead of the dollar in bilateral oil and gas dealings.

"We are ready to examine the possibility of selling energy resources for rubles, but our Chinese partners need rubles for that. We are also ready to sell for yuans," Putin said.

Britain's Independent newspaper reported in early October that Russian officials had held "secret meetings" with Arab states, China and France on ending the use of the U.S. dollar in international oil trade.

The countries are reportedly seeking to switch from the dollar to a basket of currencies including the euro, Japanese yen, Chinese yuan, gold, and a new unified currency of leading Arab oil producing countries.

The Independent said the meetings have been confirmed by Chinese and Arab banking sources, although Russian officials said they had no knowledge of the talks.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/view/

You can learn alot in just the first two minutes.

Brooksley Born, (a former) head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] -- who not only warned of the potential for economic meltdown in the late 1990s, but also tried to convince the country's key economic powerbrokers to take actions that could have helped avert the crisis.

Her advice was ignored ... more like resisted & rediculed. Then LTCM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTCM) blew up. Her advice was/is STILL resisted. She left the job. Many of the idiots who got it wrong have been ... promoted.

The derivatives (leveraged bets) bomb is still out there, only now it's much larger.

Did anyone take notice of the "volunteer" theme being weaved into sitcom storylines and even the comics pages, all week?

More propaganda to come, no doubt.

I wonder what color the shirts wil be.