Monday | July 07, 2008
IFC IS PART OF THE CARBON CREDIT MONEY MACHINE

The International Finance Corporation is a member of the World Bank Group.
Their vision is that people should have the opportunity to escape poverty and improve their lives. IFC is now the fastest growing component of the World Bank Group.

IFC allegedly provides investments and advisory services to build the private sector in developing countries. What they do is make money, lots of money, while redistributing our wealth and the money of less supportive nations to Third World Countries.The issue I have is that much of their money goes to some not so poor countries like Communist China and quasi-Communist Russia. Both rich in economies that do not trickle down to the majority of their population, because of the totalitarian regime that controls both countries.

The IFC does this through their investment branch. A company or entrepreneur seeking to establish a new venture or expand an existing enterprise can approach IFC directly by submitting an investment proposal.

After this initial contact and a preliminary review, IFC may proceed by requesting a detailed feasibility study or business plan to determine whether or not to appraise the project.

IFC's project/investment cycle illustrates the stages a business idea goes through as it becomes an IFC-financed project.

Although IFC is primarily a financier of private sector projects, it may provide finance for a company with some government ownership, provided there is private sector participation and the venture is run on a commercial basis. For example:For the World Bank after approving a loan for Shell’s contractors in Nigeria, the IFC immediately moved to the next critical piece of funding for the poor. In mid-June, the Board approved a $1.75 million loan for a 4-star hotel in Port Harcourt because “these companies will continue to demand clean reasonably priced hotel rooms.�� source: — Stephen Kretzmann

Although IFC does not accept government guarantees for its financing, its work often requires close cooperation with government agencies in developing countries. Sounds like bureaucratic double talk to me. Either they deal with the private sector or they don't!

But today,their big investment venture is in the new Carbon Credits market. A scheme that has spawned the Global Warming sector that will make huge sums of money for these supposed philanthropists.

The Carbon Finance Unit serves as IFC's in-house resource for all carbon finance-related issues, providing services directly to buyers and sellers. The Unit leads in the development of new products, and serves as an advisor on a variety of products and services to support private sector participation in the evolving carbon market.

IFC is well-positioned to assist project sponsors with participation in the rapidly growing market for 'carbon credits'. Through the Carbon Finance Program, IFC contributes to the development of an important new market for environmental services.

The Carbon Finance Unit brings IFC's extensive experience in project finance to manage long term and credit risks in emerging markets. Carbon Finance products and services include:

Finance Products and Services
Carbon Delivery Guarantee
Monetization of future cashflows from sales of carbon credits
Debt and equity for carbon rich products and businesses
Work with Financial Intermediaries and municipalities to help aggregate carbon credits from their various investment operations

CERs and ERUs (carbon credits) are greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions that are created when a project reduces or avoids the emissions of GHGs, such as carbon dioxide or methane, relative to what would have been emitted under a 'business as usual' scenario. For example, a new wind power plant that displaces existing or expected coal-fired power generation would create a significant amount of credits, as would a project at a landfill that captures and utilizes some or all of the methane that previously escaped into the air. In contrast, a wind power project that offsets hydropower would not generate credits as the baseline itself has no GHG emissions.

The USA is the largest CONTRIBUTOR TO THE IMF BY CONTRIBUTING 24% OF THE IMF ANNUAL BUDGET. Russia contributes 3%, and Great Britain 5%.

The United States had to borrow 47% of the money borrowed from international markets to prop-up our dollar in 2007. Yet we are still contributing more than 450% more money to the IFM than Great Britain, and 800% more than Russia, the European producer of a majority of the fuels used.

IFM is viewed as a philantrophic organisation, but since 1956 when it was formed, it has been a profit making machine.Their 2007 annual report showed an operating income of 2.6 billion dollar profit! This is an operating return on net worth of 21.7% for 2007.source: annual report of IFM
Communist China received 1.5 billion dollars in aid from the IFM in 2007, and even more disturbing is the investment of 2.4 billion dollars in Russia! Russia is a powerhouse economic giant in Europe because they have oil! Why give them monetary assistance?

Even the IFC’s own economists believe the IFC suffers from an “approvals culture, which provides a disincentive for rigorous analysis [that] still persists today.�� This “approvals culture�� is fueled by the fact that investment officers’ job performance is assessed on the amount of money they can move out the door, not on the success of projects or the social, environmental or development impacts of the projects.

World Bank watchers have their own take on the IFM monetary projects. "The IFC is using tax payer’s money to create corporate welfare for a huge multi–national," says Lori Pottinger, director of the Africa program at International Rivers, an environmental organization in Berkeley, California. And this won’t be the first time. According to Friends of the Earth, an environmental watchdog agency, AES stands to gain a billion dollars in financing from the IFC for the company’s power projects around the world.

IFC investment officers continue to develop projects like luxury resort hotels and shopping malls, which may generate modest foreign exchange and create employment but few other benefits, especially when the investors and occupants are foreigners.
The bottom line is we should stop supporting this World organization. Better to spend the money on the the poor in our own country!

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Saturday, July 05, 2008
WHAT ARE OBAMA'S HANDLERS TRYING TO HIDE?

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE HAS APPEARED ON NUMEROUS WEB SITES. THE PARTICULAR QUOTE I AM POSTING IS FROM THE AMERICAN THINKER.

July 04, 2008 Forgery Revealed in Kos Publication of Obama 'Birth Certificate' AUTHOR: Rick Moran
"This is an issue that isn't going away for the Obama campaign and unless they address it in an effort to put it to bed, it will become one of those "distractions" the candidate really hates: A few weeks ago, a diary entry at Daily Kos published several documents purporting to be Obama's birth certificate. One of those documents is now a confirmed forgery, ferreted out by the website Israeli Insider:

Jay McKinnon, a self-described Department of Homeland Security-trained document specialist, has implicated himself in the production of fake Hawaii birth certificate images similar to the one endorsed as genuine by the Barack Obama campaign, and appearing on the same Daily Kos blog entry where the supposedly authentic document appears.

The evidence of forgery and manipulation of images of official documents, triggered by Israel Insider's revelation of the collection of Hawaii birth certificate images on the Photobucket site and the diligent detective work of independent investigative journalists (led by JimJ and Texas Darling) and imaging professionals such as Polarik in the three weeks since the publication of the images, implicate The Daily Kos, a "progressive" blog site, and the Obama campaign's "Fight the Smears" website, in misleading the public with official-looking but manipulated document images of doubtful provenance. Moreover, the blog and the campaign have been negligent in allowing the promotion of obviously forged and fake official documents together with the purported image of Obama's birth certificate".

It seems to me that each week there is another flip-flop on policy or a revelation of questionable associates in Obama's past.
Is the Obama campaign beginning to unravel? The answer if you rely on the MSM reporting, is certainly not, as they continue the incessant negative reporting of McCain's positions. They even had the Gall to make a big story about the "Judas" generals comments that the prisoner of war status of John McCain, was not an asset to being president.

This is a story that is ongoing, and answers must be forthcoming

A CONTROVERSY THAT NEEDS TO BE FOCUSED« previous entry | next entry »
May. 30th, 2008 | 03:38 pm
The following article appeared in the papers 12 days ago. am inserting it as part of my blog to illustrate a point that all Catholics must consider, and I believe all men and women who believe in God.

CHICAGO, January 18, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – "Catholic priest Father Michael Pfleger of the Archdiocese of Chicago wants people to know that pro-abortion, pro-homosexual marriage Senator Barack Obama “is the best thing to come across the political scene since Bobby Kennedy. By Cassidy Bugos

Father Pfleger says he has known Obama for 20 years. “I think Barack Obama is in a class of his own,” he said.

As an Illinois Senator Obama had the unstinting approval of the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council for his dependable support of pro-abortion legislation. Now, after a short two years in the U.S. Senate, Obama has earned 100% ratings from pro-abortion groups across the board, including NARAL Pro-Choice America and the National Organization for Women.

In 2002 he voted against a bill to protect or offer medical care to babies that survive botched abortions. Prior to that he opposed an Illinois State ban on partial-birth abortion, and refused his vote to a bill mandating internet pornography filters in schools.

In 2006, Obama cast his vote against the Federal Marriage Amendment. “Personally, I do believe that marriage is between a man and a woman,” he said the day he voted against defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

Although Father Pfleger says he is pro-life, he has a long history of inviting outspoken pro-abortion advocates into his pulpit – this despite the fact that the Chicago Archdiocese has a longstanding policy explicitly forbidding the use of Church property, under any circumstances, by pro-abortion advocates.

Yet in January 2003 singer Harry Belafonte was invited by Pfleger to speak at a Sunday Mass, where he criticized Bush for being pro-life and threatening a “woman’s right to abortion.”

Pfleger has also hosted Muslim firebrand Louis Farrakhan, a known ridiculer of the Pope who has condemned Judaism as “a gutter religion.”

Nor is this the first time Father Pfleger has been outspoken in his support of pro-abortion politicians. In February 2003 he invited pro-abortion Presidential candidate and Pentecostal minister Rev. Al Sharpton to speak during Mass.

For Sharpton, that was the first time he had spoken in a Catholic church.

“The comfort,” he told the Chicago Sun-Times after the event, “is that Father Pfleger is a different kind of a Catholic priest.”

Different indeed!. And this "priest" in my opinion has violated his vows as a priest each time he allowed an activist to preach in his parish church that advocates what Catholics call a Mortal sin!

All Catholics, both Black and White should ignore this radicals endorsement of Obama, and examine their conscience to determine if they can vote for a man who advocates not only in utero-abortions, but the killing of babies after bith in the so called Partial-birth abortion. The sanctity of life is absolute from the moment of conception to the moment of natural life, and if you are Catholic, no matter what color your skin is, you should vote against anyoine who does not affirm this precept of our faith!

And if any who happen to read this blog disagree that the Pope has spoken on this issue. I ofer an excerpt from a presentation that Pope Benedict gave to the Jesuit community.Vatican, Feb. 21, 2008 (CWNews.com) - "Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) gave the world's Jesuits a pointed reminder of their oath of fidelity, during a February 21 audience with participants in the 35th general congregation of the Society of Jesus.
Meeting with the Jesuit leaders as they concluded their general congregation-- at which they had elected a new superior general, Father Adolfo Nicolas-- the Holy Father stressed that the Jesuit order today should act "in full fidelity to the original charism."

That original charism, the Pope continued, is marked by devotion and obedience to the Church and the Roman Pontiff; he reminded the Jesuit leaders of St. Ignatius' demand that his followers should always work "with the Church and in the Church."

Preserving harmony with the Church, Pope Benedict continued, is a particularly important task today, at a time when there is a "confusion of messages" in society on many fundamental issues. He exhorted the Jesuits to seek "that harmony with the magisterium that avoids causing confusion and uncertainty among the People of God." All members of the Society of Jesus, he said, should "adhere completely to the Word of God as well as to the magisterium’s charge of conserving the truth and unity of Catholic doctrine in its entirety."

The Pope encouraged the Jesuits to continue their work among the poor, but cautioned that this work should not be politicized. He observed that "the option for the poor is not ideological but rather is born of the Gospel." And while fighting against injustice, he added, the Jesuits must remember that it is also necessary "to fight the deep roots of evil in the very heart of the human being, the sin that separates us from God."

What Father Pfleger allowed in his church was the religion of hate, and it is evil incarnate!

Before we all buy into the mass media stampeede to make us believe we are threatened with global warming. I would like all to consider these facts.

Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) is a theory. It is an unproven theory. What you do with theories is put them to the test with scientific observations. Let's see what data points we now have:
1) Temperatures have not surpassed 1998 (NOAA)
2) Temperatures are now trending downward since 1998 (NOAA)
3) Ocean temperatures have not risen since 2000 when the Argo buoys were launched. The buoys even show a slight decrease in ocean temperatures
4) The Arctic ice froze to February levels by December, there are 1mm more sq km than before (previous was 13mm sq km)
5) The Arctic ice is 20cm thicker than "normal"
6) All polar bear pods are stable or growing (NOAA/PBS)
7) Mount Kilimanjaro is not melting because of global warming, rather "sublimation"
8) The Antarctic is not "melting", it is growing in most places, the sloughing off at the edges is normal as the ice mass grows
9) The majority of the Antarctic is 8 degrees below "normal"
10) The coveted .7 degree rise in temperatures over the last 100 years has been wiped out with last years below "normal" temperatures
11) Al Gores film was just deemed "propaganda" in a court of law in the UK as many points could not be substantiated by scientists
12) It was also just reveled that some of the footage in Al's film was CGI. The ice shelf collapse was from the movie "The Day After" (ABC)
13) One of the scientists that originally thought that CO2 preceded the warming has now found with new data that the CO2 rise follows the warming (Dr David Evans)
14) Storms have become less frequent and less severe (many GW alarmists are now backtracking these earlier "theories")
15) Droughts have always happened and always will
16) The greenhouse effect is real, our small contribution to it cannot even be measured
17) Several publications, including those that are "warmist" have recently written that the "natural" cycles of the earth may "mask" AGW. Give me a break.
18) 31,000 scientist have signed a petition against AGW!

With China (1 new coal fired plant coming on line each week) and India spewing millions of tons of CO2 in to the atmosphere, along with the rest of the world increasing their CO2 "production" over the last ten years, these results should be impossible.

Now, please be so kind to give me one piece of observable evidence that man is causing "global warming".

Tags: facts, global warming, ice pack, polar bears

Friday, May 09, 2008

With farmers destroying wheat fields to plant corn or soy beans, to cash in on the subsidized price of grain products that can be used to make ethanol. The world is beginning to experience food riots and over fourteen countries are facing rapidly approaching famine.

Since the majority of Congress and the President have "bought in to" the idea that ethanol will help reduce our dependence on fosil fuels, despite the fact that it costs more to make than gasoline and gradually destroys fuel injectors in motor cars! The supply of corn, soy beans and rice has been drastically reduced for the making of food products.Check your food stores to see the results, higher prices. And this is just the begining!

In places like Haiti the poor are eating yellow cake "mud Biscuits". On the roof of a former prison, enterprising women prepare something that looks like biscuits and is even called by that name. The key ingredient, yellow clay, is trucked in from the nearby mountains. The clay is combined with salt and vegetable fat to make dough, which is then dried in the sun. The clay costs$5.00 to make 100 biscuits!
For many Haitians, the mud biscuits are their only food. They taste of fat, suck the moisture out of the mouth and leave behind an aftertaste of dirt. They often cause diarrhea, but they help to numb the pangs of hunger. "I'm hoping one day I'll have enough food to eat, so I can stop eating these," Marie Noël, who survives with her seven children on the dirt cakes.source :The Associated Press
The shortages triggered revolts in Haiti last week. A crowd of hungry citizens marched through Port-au-Prince, throwing stones and bottles and chanting, "We are hungry!" in front of the presidential palace. Tires were burned, and people died. It was yet another of the rebellions that are beginning to occur with increasing frequency worldwide, but which are still only a harbinger of what is yet to come. The USA closed our embasy during these riots!

Food is become increasingly scarce and expensive, and it is already unaffordable for many people. It is estimated that 850 million people have to go to bed hungry every night. How long will it be before these hungry people turn to the violence of revolution and the Communism that usually follows a revolution that is violent!

World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned that exploding food prices threaten to cause instability in at least 33 countries, including regional powers like Egypt, Indonesia and Pakistan, where the army has had to be brought in to protect flour transports. The crisis is helping radical Islamic movements gain strength in North Africa. There has been unrest in recent weeks in Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal, the Ivory Coast and Cameroon, where the violence has already claimed about 100 lives. source : DerSpiegel

The food crisis has hit Manila in the Philippines where Communist insurgents have already been busy with their spread of revolution through violence. India has the largest number of underfed people, about 220 million!

China with over close to a quarter of the world's population to feed, but only 7 percent of its farmland. And a similar situation applies in India. This means that both countries must import food on a large scale, prompting many exporting countries to impose export quotas so that their own citizens are not suddenly forced to go without.

How long will the ethanol frenzy go on in the USA? Will it take riots by the poor and rationing to wake Americans to the fact that ethanol is not the answer to the fuel crisis here in the USA?

More drilling where we know the oil is and building more refineries will make some people mad, but is the only Christian thing to do. As Christ said, "feed My poor.! Not make ethanol out of food products and starve my poor!