Sunday we all got a chuckle (or a scare depending on your world view) from the Superbowl Green Police commercial. Some thought it was fine satire, others thought it hit a little too close to reality.
After watching this report about Cathy Zoi in the Obama administration, perhaps the “too close to reality” worry has merit. In this report from John Stossel, she visualizes and vocalizes the need for “swat teams” in neighborhoods to enforce energy efficiency retrofits for homes and businesses.
Zoi, formerly of the “Alliance for Climate Protection”, formerly Al Gore’s point person for his “Repower America” nationwide campaign, now heads up Obama’s DOE energy efficiency/renewables division.
Cathy Zoi, center, Al Gore, at right. Photo via Flickr
Treehugger has a report on her move from GORE to DOE.
So why is John Stossel reporting about her? It seems some cronyism might be afoot related to company that’s been getting some government handouts as part of the “stimulus”. Watch John Stossel’s eye opening report below.
I should add that I’m all for energy efficiency, which I demonstrate with deeds, but I’m against “swat teams” forcing retrofits on homeowners. People are smart enough to make a change if it will save energy and thus money.
It is scary to see the potential for an unholy alliance of politicians, news media, and publishers to use science as a propaganda tool to control mankind.
That’s my opinion,
Oliver K. Manuel
Emeritus Professor of
Nuclear & Space Science
Former NASA PI for Apollo
Come on! I like this site for its attention to reality, and use of real facts. Stossel moved to Fox because ABC stopped him from doing outright hack jobs such as this, and he IS NOT a reporter at Fox, but a comentator (based on his and Fox’ own statements), thus to put this up like it is true and meaningful is below this site.
Please remove this tripe and stick to science, this removes credibility from what this site is supposed to be good at, science based claims for science issues with political overtones.
What crap…
REPLY: Sorry you feel that way, but I was more interested in the “swat team” comparison to the Green Police commercial. – A
Window dressing of the worst kind!
Henry,
The only factual question remaining is: are they making the most efficient windows or not?
This treehugger report has a nice link to “How Much Longer Will There be Snow to Ski On?” … couple more weeks in Washington D.C.?
LOL
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/travel-outdoors/longer-snow-ski.html?campaign=daylife-article
I’m shocked! Not really. Just one more example of the particular shade of green involved in the green economy. I wonder which caulk company gave the most to the Obama campaign?
The “Swat Team” statement alone sends a shiver down my spine.
Interesting that a report on how one window maker got singled out for praise, and how that window maker just happens to have political connections, could be called a “hack job.”
This is more of the same “Green Science” that we saw elsewhere. The statements the politicians make are untrue, the handouts are politically motivated, and the cost to the tax payers for these green jobs will never be repaid by any kind of ficticious “energy savings.”
Unfortunately the Greens have made this political, and uncoupling politics from science will require exposure of all of the lies, not just UN report lies.
Henry, “like it is true and meaningful”, you mean that they can say those things if it is not true?
GET REAL.
It goes on all the time and is germane to what AGW is all about.
Oh, I can hardly wait till some ECO SWAT team comes up my 1/4 mile driveway, past the NO TRESSPASSING sign, and tells me I’ve got to add more insulation. There’s a cure for trespassers.
I loved the “Green Police” ad and found it hilarious (it was my favorite SB ad), but to feed into the overzealous paranoia out there right now is counterproductive, at least I think so. Lets stick to facts.
And you morons shot Kennedy.
Antonio Sam – {Groan – Bad pun!}
And good question. The answer is no, they are no better or worse than the other 2 brands. They just have better connections.
Stossel’s OK. Anyone who challanges the main stream propaganda machine, or puts his butt on the line for the benefit of the everyday people of this country has earned a “listen”, a “watch” and/or a “read” in my book. Stossel’s NOT the issue here.
Greens : 1% of the electoral vote. 100% of the media’s attention.
Al Gore essentially gave the Obama Administration his “wish list” of “stimulus” funding for corporate entities that he has an economic vested interest in. This is why funding to “beef up” the electricity grid consisted of “smart monitors” to regulate household use of electricity. I thought the plan was to improve power line capacity to encourage wind, solar etc.
It is crony capitalism at its worse. Smart monitors are also another example of “the green police” invading the lifestyle choices of individuals. Soon we will be told when power can or cannot be used, followed by fines and penalties for “excessive use”. Policies that favor the single urban elitist type over middle Americans with large families.
That shot of Al Gore standing menacingly with slicked back hair reminds me of the “Minder” in a 1970’s British sitcom of the same name.
Rachel Maddow on stimulus: “Government gives money to company so they can ramp up production. That’s how it works…. Economic stimulus….Ta Da”.
Of course here is the next part she didn’t say or maybe doesn’t understand – that Serious Windows ramps up production to sell windows. Yet, because of the building recession, there are few buyers so the unsold inventory builds up causing the price of windows to plummet, while the government favoritism of the one company has forced the other two to sell even less product forcing them to lay off workers, and then when Serious Windows realizes that they can’t make anymore windows, they lay off employees as well…. failed government interference in the free market economy… Ta Da!
PS. I’m not against government’s role in buffering the downturn. I am against them doing it stupidly and ineffectively.
You mean investigative reporting that makes the shady Obambi administration look bad? Let’s see: A VP of this window company is married to an administration ‘energy’ official. Then the Vice President and President select this window company out of all the others to endorse. Coincidence? Not likely!
Now just wait until the EPA starts enforcing its CO2 restrictions. Then you’ll find out who the friends of this administration really are, and who are its enemies. And then you’ll really see some SWAT teams.
/Mr Lynn
What a travesty!
Cathy Zoi will serve as Assistant Secretary in the Department of Energy (DOE)!
The same DOE that misled the public by falsely reporting that solar neutrinos from H-fusion oscillate away before we can detect them?
The same DOE that ignored nuclear rest mass data that show neutron repulsion is a greater source of nuclear energy than fusion or fission?
To further illustrate the commitment of the present administration to the security of this country, I nominate TV personality Joan Rivers to replace Dr. Steven Chu as DOE Secretary.
With kind regards,
Oliver K. Manuel
Emeritus Professor of
Nuclear & Space Studies
Former NASA PI for Apollo
We’re all going to need these windows, to fight global cooling!
“Rachel Maddow on stimulus: “Government gives money to company so they can ramp up production. That’s how it works…. Economic stimulus….Ta Da”.”
Ya . . . she must have missed the part about the layoffs at the other window makers who didn’t have the political clout to make the US Government divert all that taxpayer’s money into the revenue stream of the “special’ company.
One company gets a lip-lock on the public teat, two real companies suffer. NO market place distortion there.
I look forward to these energy ‘swat teams.’ It will literally embolden this country and the government will fall apart.
It’s all politics. Not science. Notice the union goon in the t shirt. I’m sure a non-union company would not be in Biden’s limelight.
As I said once in an earlier post, this is now The Age of Dark Science.
When government policy, business interests, and social engineers combine together to undermine science, facts and reality, we have Dark Science, Dark Knowledge and a Dark Society.
It took many centuries for society to separate the church from state, and it took many lives to do it. We now have a far more potentially destructive problem, separating the maniacal megalomaniac elitists, stone-age regressive seekers of society and self-serving presumptuous manipulative intellectual hypocrites from the legislative and executive branches of government. I shudder what cost we as society have to pay to rid ourselves of this group of vampires, vultures and leeches.
The Age of Dark Science is here. The only weapon we have is the same weapon that all liars, cheats, crooks and bullies fear, the light of truth, use it well people!
As for those windows: note how this government is investing tax payers dollars in an industry, that is the building industry, where there is no building going on, cause of the housing bubble implosion. What kind off idiotic thinking goes into putting money in an industry that has crashed. Obama how about fixing the economy, getting people to work, so they can then afford to buy a home, and then by default, not just one window company, BUT EVERY window company will be able to grow and employ people.
Me thinks that this Democratic Party is more interested in lining their pockets and using The Office of State as a device in this regard, than to really helping The People of the US of A. We had the bankers making hay thanks to Obama, now it is a Window company.
Que: Any body have the Democratic Party members’ list of spouses and their corporate associations? One could make a lot of money picking the place where tax payers’ dollars are going to be deposited!
Henry (08:24:21) ……..you really have a negative comparison of Fox reporting to that of ABC’s? Really? While I won’t defend Fox and their obvious slant, I would like to note that as far as online news, I haven’t seen ABC say boo about any of the IPCC errant assertions, or e-mails, or changing historical temps, or ….well, you get my point.
Welcome to the era of the pull peddlers, where business success is not measured in terms of productive efficiency but in who you know so that you can tap into a government funding revenue stream.
This was posted elsewhere on WUWT a few days ago but belongs on this thread:
Obama is threatening a ‘Miliband’ on ‘deniers’ and ‘conpiracy theorists’ (that means some of us!):
http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=5086
The Green Police Ad: My wife was horrified.
She’s a hardy type from New England, not much rattles her, but that one sure did.
The most distrubing aspect of all that was the target: Individuals.
It’s ok for the store or the restaurant to have styrofoam cups. It’s ok to manufacture and distribute them.
It’s the people at the end of the line who will pay dearly.
Off-topic: how do you release this energy of ‘neutron repulsion’?
I only have one word to say but it would get snipped… it starts with F and ends with K.
CORRECTED
Quote: Steve Schaper (09:35:57) :
“Off-topic: how do you release this energy of ‘neutron repulsion’?”
a.) Neutron-emission generates 60% of solar luminosity.
b.) Neutron-decay to H generates 5% of solar luminosity.
b’) Neutron-decay generates 100% of the Solar-Wind Hydrogen.
c.) Fusion of the n-decay product (H) generates 35% of solar luminosity.
c’) Fusion of the n-decay product (H) generates 100% of the solar neutrinos.
See: Journal of Fusion Energy 20, 197-201 (2003)
http://www.omatumr.com/abstracts2003/jfe-neutronrep.pdf
http://www.springerlink.com/content/x1n87370×6685079/
With kind regards,
Oliver K. Manuel
she visualizes and vocalizes the need for “swat teams” in neighborhoods to enforce energy efficiency retrofits for homes and businesses
You are done buddies!
Bad news!…no more popcorn!
Ive read Stossel’s book, it is a scary thing to read to be honest. A lot of top companies have gotten to the top via things like this. It never mattered whether it was a Republican or Democratic administration, it still happens. Stossel has been labelled a political pundit because of stories like this, by those that just want to keep the wool over peoples eyes on just how the United States actually works. There is NO such thing as the American Dream. There IS a kingship class that controls this country. It is in the kingship’s class best intrest that we keep fighting like dogs over whos a republican or democrat. It keeps us peasants too occupied on each other to realize we are slaves to the elite class.
Yes, you may still be a wealthy slave and may indeed have a chance to have a good life, but at the end of it all, you are still a slave. Outside of the elite class that makes the real decisons in life. You are still prone to deal with what they decide. Just because you may of prospered in their environment does not take away from the fact that you are still owned by them. This is the way the United States works.
Steve Schaper (09:35:57) :
Off-topic: how do you release this energy of ‘neutron repulsion’?
Just increasing probability of encounter among them.
More than a neighbour will become a “friendly” whistle blower like it happens in Cuba or in Venezuela.
Ther is no such thing as croney capatalism. This is a contradiction in terms. Capatalism is based on the profit motive, not who your friends are. There is another word to describe this process and it also begins with ‘c’. I was about to write the matter off as just that until I followed the link that Sam kindly provided. The integration of state and private companies is a hallmark of the fascist state.
Henry (08:24:21) : “…to put this up like it is true and meaningful is below this site.”
Should have read :”…to put this up AS IF IT WERE true and meaningful is below this site.”
Your citation will be mailed to you. Pay the amount in the red circled box within thirty days of date of mailing or your writing license will be revoked. Use only the enclosed postage-paid envelope. Be sure to remit the citation stub with your check or money order. Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate the citation stub. Failure to pay will have consequences as described in full on the back of the citation, up to and including installation of a padlock on your computer(s).
Grammar Police SWAT Team
[Nota bene: For those of you whose sense of humor has been burnt out by reading too much warmist willie propaganda, the foregoing is a joke.]
Meanwhile, Treas. Sec. Geithner has breakfast with this crew:
http://www.us-cap.org/
The pdf on the above website about their goals is rather interesting too.
Nice color choice for that outfit she’s wearing. Does she have matching green jack-boots to go with?
Grumpy Old man (10:02:11) :
When a Country is ran like a company, the People need to Unionize because the Government is an Autocracy.
@JonesII (09:59:30)
“More than a neighbour will become a “friendly” whistle blower like it happens in Cuba or in Venezuela.”
..or DDR
Das Leben der Anderen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lives_of_Others
Sonic, she is wrong on several levels. First government does not “give” money. As we saw with GM, Chrysler and TARP, they merely buy interests in companies.
Second, a business goes to a bank to borrow money to ramp up production and pays a fee on that money. That is called the cost of doing business and everyone must pay it or the nation gets accused of dumping (subsizding products).
Third – Government Stimulus would be to then allow consumers to buy the product – if it is worth their money! How? Let consumers keep more so they have more to spend on what they deem worth their money.
I understand that the quote was from Madcow, but she is not smart enough to understand simple economics so it would be wasted on her.
Erik The Viking (10:27:02) : “The life of the others”…well, let’s be positive: While conspirers conspire nature conspires its own way.
After cuba or venezuela dictators grew in power they became more and more prisoners of their own revolutions…silly business, isn’t it?
It is just a matter of waiting: “Just wait at the door of your house and you’ ll see the corpse of you enemy passing by” (Confusius), so…
Let’s buy more popcorn!
Swat team task #1 get Al Gore to get rid of two of his three residences. It is obvious that one person can be in one place at only one time. I suppose you could get into quantum entanglement and not know where he is until you see him and then you will know his state at the other two locations, but BIG AL is of sufficiently large mass that quantum effects can be safely discarded.
Sunfighter,
“. . .This is the way the United States works.”
It’s the way the whole world works.
IMAPOPULISTNOW (08:43:27) :Don’t forget related ISO standards. Old american standards have no value now. From metric system to the light bulbs you will buy, everything was planned before without your participation.
That guy at the right of the picture, wearing a blue shirt, is it His Sainthood himself or a genetically modified CLON?
The SWAT team idea scares the crap out of me, however, living in the UK I think we’ll probably pioneer the actualisation of this idea. You’ve probably already picked up on the fact that we’re pretty much ruled by thus eco-fascism.
Something I know about, double glazing. I’ll be fixing a cutting machine tomorrow.
Double glazing is much of a muchness these days. Low metal plain glass to allow as much IR as possible in, hard coat low ‘E’ coating to allow toughening. As yet I know of no low metal coated glass but it can’t be far off. Soft coat is more effective but I don’t at the moment know of a soft coat that can be toughened. Everest in Northampton used to cut, toughen then coat.
The technology is available to cut, auto-breakout, rack waiting for the pairs to be matched & feed into an automatic unit maker.
Computer control can also feed pieces to auto edging lines for toughened units.
Spacer 16 to 20mm depending on glass thickness & the frame. Over 20mm spacing hits diminishing returns due to convection. The spacer itself will have a thermal break to prevent conduction from the inner pane to the outer.
Frame. µPVC
DaveE.
Hey check out my re-edit of the green police video, I’ve made it reflect reality better!
Al’s song:
♪♪♪”When I was just a little boy
I asked my mother what shall I be
Shall I be handsome, shall I be rich?
This is what my mother said:
Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be,
the future it’s not ours to see,
but, president you won’t be, won´t be…
Que sera, sera?,
What will be will be…..♪♪♪
@Henry:
The clip is from the Stossel episode about Crony Capitalism. Nobody disputed the facts about Zoi and her connections to “Serious Windows” through her husband.
Isn’t even the appearance of favoritism enough? How about documented actual favoritism? How is it “Serious Windows” gets such favorable treatment (again, undisputed) while companies that make identical windows get nothing?
I wish you had bothered to know some facts before weighing in.
Brilliant!!! Al Gore as Police Commissioner!!!!
Zombie… Consider yourself posted!
… at Sonicfrog
You are absolutely right, this ain’t capitalism. I did not want to be the first to use the “f-word” (fascism) that that is exactly what this is.
It is perfectly fine to make money, even large sums of money, as long as your business is officially “approved.” Having influential friends in government doesn’t hurt, either.
I don’t keep up with American corporate-political tie-ups so forgivr the naieve question. How much money is wrapped up in this windows business compared to (say) the Haliburton scandals?
[ahem]
Ms Zoi is my fourth level superior at the US Department of Energy, where I work as general engineer in DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
As skeptical as I am, to the point of being irascible about it, I point out, that there are two sides to every story, and the story from Ms Zoi and her husband’s window company is much different.
Anyway, “swat teams” are simply hyped lingo for community rebuild programs, and we can’t really read any “para-military” connotation etc in this type of wording.
{really!]
Link to Zoi’s swat statement.
http://eco-converts.blogspot.com/2010/01/swat-teams-and-climate-change-go-hand.html
Rachel Maddow on stimulus: “Government gives money to company so they can ramp up production. That’s how it works…”
Rachel forgot the most important word ……….. “your”, as in “Government gives YOUR money to company…..”
Dumbass still thinks the government has it’s own money!
Although the bad science is being exposed to the light of day at last, it is this sort of corruption and lining of pockets which will bring the Obama administration crashing down.
These sort of people are so arrogant that they think they are bullet proof, but history proves they are living on borrowed time.
We are many, but they are few.
As this thread seems to have morphed from Anthonys original intent, (the SWAT team element). Can I say that government endorsement of one company is at the least discomforting?
DaveE.
zombiehellmonkey (11:21:55) :
You’re a naughty monkey 😉
The AGW social movement is not at all unique. At its heart small groups of people are making large sums of money. A few people misuse their social stature and influence to sell obviously bogus stuff to believers who choose to suspend their critical thinking skills. Apocalyptic claptrap is always interesting. Gore is a specialist in claptrap. that one of his protege’s can use his influence to gain access to serious government power is not surprising at all.
Actually, the (Audi’s title) “Green Car” ad deserves most credit IMO for the hilarious last scene – where the Green Police roll up on the street cops and bust ’em for Styrofoam cups. I could not stop laughing at this.
I don’t mind Obama trying to grow jobs with energy efficiency as long as they are real jobs. He has to do a better job himself of spreading the love around. If every window company makes efficient windows – don’t they get a piece of pie?
Oh, FYI for our friends in CCP, the Audi advert was created by San Francisco’s hot ad agency Venables Bell & Partners. Offices not far from Al Gore’s waterfront town house. These guys seem unafraid to call the spades and remind us that market-based trade is doing just fine in the USA.
Is a little bit of corruption OK, or just a lot? Does the amount of money matter?
Does it matter that Chaney no longer worked at Haliburton? Does it matter that no other American company could do much of the work that Haliburton was contracted to do?
I have not heard anybody imply the Obama administration invented cronyism. I also do not see the point of arguing over what the last administration did or did not do. Bush, Chaney, Rumsfeld are out.
@ Brian G Valentine (12:24:48) :
Well, please tell us the other side of the story then! I saw the Stossel segment and the official reply was Zoi was careful to ensure no conflict of interest (I am paraphrasing, of course).
Most taxpayers see it differently. Please explain how this is not cronyism, pay for play or pay-back for Obama political supporters. The floor is yours
Henry (08:24:21) :
Come on! I like this site for its attention to reality, and use of real facts.
Henry, what was factually wrong with the commentary?
Zombiemonkey – why can’t you be like the rest of the primates?? Consider the other fellow:
http://xrl.in/4ha6
Just a little more about cronyism. Don’t you just love this one! How much worse can it get?
“Today, even though President Obama is against off shore drilling for our country, he signed an executive order to loan 2 Billion of our taxpayers dollars to a Brazilian Oil Exploration Company (which is the 8th largest company in the entire world) to drill for oil off the coast of Brazil! The oil that comes from this operation is for the sole purpose and use of China and NOT THE USA! Now here’s the real clincher…the Chinese government is under contract to purchase all the oil that this oil field will produce, which is hundreds of millions of barrels of oil”.
We have absolutely no gain from this transaction whatsoever! Wait, it gets more interesting.
Guess who is the largest individual stockholder of this Brazilian Oil Company and who would benefit most from this? It is American BILLIONAIRE, George Soros, who was one of President Obama’s most generous financial supporter during his campaign.
If you are able to connect the dots and follow the money, you are probably as upset as I am. Not a word of this transaction was broadcast on any of the other news networks!
Forward this factual e-mail to others who care about this country and where it is going. Also, let all of your Government representatives know how you feel about this. Below is the Wall street Journal article to confirm this.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203863204574346610120524166.html
Technocracy at work, through the arm of fascism.
As I see it, the facts are these:
EERE was appointed by the Congress to administer “stimulus grants” to communities to help create some jobs – at the same time, have an energy efficiency bent to them.
Zoi was probably put under the gun to get up a “feel-good” story about the stimulus grants, so she probably came up with her husband’s company (too quickly) which received a tax break (not money) that would supply windows to a community grant recipient to install them in housing projects etc. The window company hired people back to work to make the windows that would go to the community projects.
Then the Obama admin grabbed the story and interpreted it as the stimulus grants putting people back to work.
All of it true.
Should Zoi have ensured that her husband’s company was the last place the Obama admin would turn for a feel good story? Sure. Should Zoi have made it absolutely clear that her husband was involved with this feel good story if the story was indeed advertised by the Obama admin? Yes.
I remain (violently) opposed to the promotion of energy efficiency based on the false premises of AGW, other than that, I’m in no position to cast stones at people’s integrity, and not because I have anything to feel ashamed about, either.
Hansen’s taking cash for speaking to advocate groups is another matter, however, and I’ll throw stones at that.
Ray (09:45:05) :
Firetruck? What has that got to do with it…..
Brian, facts do not begin “probably”. You were asked for the facts of the matter and gave only your opinion.
@ Erik The Viking (10:27:02) :
@JonesII (09:59:30)
‘“More than a neighbour will become a “friendly” whistle blower like it happens in Cuba or in Venezuela.”
..or DDR
Das Leben der Anderen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lives_of_Others‘
A council in GB’s GB have tried to set up neighbourhood spies of this type, to report anti-social behaviour and various other vaguely defined problems. Don’t know whether this project has ever got off the ground . Still, saves the Old Bill having to do any actual crimestopping.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6530518/Council-accused-of-recruiting-army-of-2000-snoopers.html
You’re probably right, Phil.
: )
Curiousgeorge (08:36:58) :
Wrong buttom.
Meant to say by the time an eco-swat team had marched up the other 1/4 mile or longer driveways (after jumping fences or gates marked no trespassing) there wouldn’t be any left for me to deal with.
I didn’t see an announcement to say that the USA had turned into a totalitarian dictatorship. That’s the most incredible thing I’ve seen.
Coincidentally (I’m in the UK by the way) a month or two back I received a letter from my local council to say that they had set up a visit for me from a surveyor. Now I have kidney cancer and don’t do social visits, but would enjoy kicking the rear end of just about anyone in reality, and an interfering nosey bureaucrat would do just fine.
Apparently it was part of the English Housing Survey. I’d like a visit from a nurse, but maybe a surveyor is the next best thing.
After a little investigation I discovered this
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/pdf/1371753.pdf
which says they’ll be measuring my house’s energy effciency, something the council didn’t mention in their letter to me.
I’m not quite at death’s door, but any council sponsored surveyor preaching to me on the long term benefits of cavity insulation would find himself quite a bit closer himself, as any benefit would have to factor in my own longevity.
I really wonder what the outcome would have been if I had allowed this person into my house,
I had better prepare for the SWAT team. That must be the next step.
Good wishes to you, Graham.
I can’t imagine the indignity of “kilowatt police” on top of what you already endure
@Brian G Valentine (14:57:15) :
Thank you for your response.
I believe in the presumption of innocence and I take the position that the appearance of a conflict of interest is something to be avoided.
On a related topic, I do not believe cronyism, special favors, pay-for-play, etc., are acceptable simply because these things have gone on since day one. Improper is improper regardless of which political party is in power.
The comment, so easily thrown away, about SWAT teams going into every neighbourhood and retro-fitting houses with her husband’s company’s windows made me shudder.
This is Governmental corruption out in the open. Why has this woman not yet been arrested, or at least removed from office for this blatant illegality?
Looking at the system right at the top, political appointees in the Federal government were not exactly “uninvolved” with [the particular] President’s election to office, and where it stops, I have no idea.
I’m not spotless.
Gavin S has been whacked in the skeptical web pages for “blogging his workday away on Real Climate” instead of doing his job.
Do I write my skeptical stuff on web logs during work hours? Yes I do, yes I do, and yes I do
H.R.2857 – GIVE Act
To reauthorize and reform the national service laws.
Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act
This bill and others similar to it require “mandatory volunteer” service from children and young adults.
SEC. 152. ESTABLISHMENT OF NATIONAL CIVILIAN COMMUNITY CORPS PROGRAM
SEC. 1506. TRAINING.
including a focus on energy conservation, environmental stewardship or conservation, infrastructure improvement, urban and rural development, or disaster preparedness needs
Who would the green police be? According to the GIVE Act, it would be your own school age children and all young adults. Mandatory volunteers.
Count me as one of those who was very upset with Audi’s Green Car commercial. Was it just a means of promoting their diesel engine car or was it a glimpse of the future with environmental extremists in control of the government? The commercial portrays peolple being arrested and roughed up by the police for “crimes” such as:
Asking for a plastic bag instead of paper.
Being in possesion of incandescent light bulbs.
Putting a used battery in the garbage.
Sitting in a hot tub set at 105 degrees.
Is this a glimpse of the policy direction of the future? Congress has already banned incandescent light bulbs. Now another Obama Czar speaks of swat teams to enforce energy efficiency retrofits for homes and businesses.
These people are serious psychopaths and they control the government!
The term SWAT team is commonly used in the Federal government in a positive sense. It has nothing to do with police. You send in a specialized or multidisciplinary team to fix something. I think you are being just a little paranoid.
AGW is, to my mind, absolute the most harmful and despicable fabrication to have come about in my lifetime, when I first looked at AGW for the DOE 25 years ago I thought it had been discredited every decade since 1900 and no one would ever do anything except laugh about it ever again, I feel turned upside down thinking about how far this falsehood has spread and the consequences of the spread of this belief, seem too much for me to bear
In Software Engineering, a ‘SWAT Team’ (‘S’pecial ‘W’eapons ‘A’and ‘T’raining) is an organizational structure model. The purpose of a S.W.A.T. project is to get as much done as quickly as possible, typically on a small, difficult task. …
That is how the term is used in the Federal Government. We are the government and we are here to help!!
Definition of Swat team from Wikipedia:
“A S.W.A.T. (Special Weapons And Tactics)[1][2] team is an elite Special Operations tactical unit in American and some international law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers. Their duties include performing hostage rescues and counter-terrorism operations, serving high risk arrest and search warrants, subduing barricaded suspects, and engaging heavily-armed criminals. A SWAT team is often equipped with specialized firearms including assault rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, carbines, riot control agents, stun grenades, and high-powered rifles for snipers. They have specialized equipment including heavy body armor, entry tools, armored vehicles, advanced night vision optics, and motion detectors for covertly determining the positions of hostages or hostage takers inside of an enclosed structure.”
I think the bottom line here is for each one of us to start “Living Green”. We must find ways to make our homes and businesses energy efficiency.
Most people turn to window tints in order to reduce their energy consumption. FREE information on different kinds of window tints and it’s benefits are available at http://www.TintBuyer.com. Window tints will enable us to minimize the use of our air-conditioners and heater which is way economical and eco-friendly. Let’s go GREEN!
Correction: the mandatory service language has been removed from HR 2857 but can still be found in HR 1444. (It took me a whole Saturday last year to find that.)
You can still see that the groundwork for the ESTABLISHMENT OF NATIONAL CIVILIAN COMMUNITY CORPS PROGRAM with “a focus on energy conservation, environmental stewardship or conservation” is being laid right now.
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1444/show
Graham UK: I believe the English Housing Survey is a ruse to hide the new survey for reappraising (ie raising) Council Tax bands, thought up by the odious John Prescott. It means anyone who has spent their own taxed income to improve their property will find themselves in a higher tax band.
In the UK people are already taken to court and fined for eg putting something in the wrong bin. I told you recently of a friend (and academic as UEA as it happens!) whose living room/kitchen in Cambridge which is not large at all contains three rubbish bins, which due to lack of space have to sit int he room, One is for organic waste – only collected once a fortnight!
All this is as per EU dictates btw – everythig must be separated, re-cycled etc. Except that the bottom has fallen out of the recycled materials market esp for paper, and it’s stored in old hangars etc all over the country as vast expense. Some councils barge it down the Thames etc and then send it all off to China or Indonesia to dispose of – really good for the carbon foot[print, that!
Meanwhile we jettison enough cardboard p.a. in the UK to fire a couple of electrity stations – but we are not permitted to burn it due to EU rules on ‘hazardous waste’. One guy spent all his savings on a factory to convert waste cardboard to fuel bricks, and was doing pretty well at it – but EU rules forced him to close it, with no compensation of course. (Thanks to C Booker for detail on all this kind of stuff – he’s been cataloguing it for many years)
I collected up all my old ‘energy saving’ lightbulbs last summer and took them to the dump, handing them in separately and noting the mercury as hazardous waste. I watched as the guy promptly went and threw them in the giant skip with all the other landfill stuff.
“Let’s go GREEN!”
Let’s not.
“but seeing as how new EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has inflated the Agency’s budget by almost 50%, there would seem to be little reason for USEPA to outsource its authority. Yet, that’s exactly what has been going on, and I thought that someone should bring the situation to your attention.”
50% !!! That’s insane,,,
http://bigjournalism.com/rtrzupek/2010/02/09/outsourcing-the-usepa-an-open-letter-to-congress/#more-20810
I’m already “green”.
I eat food that has incorporated carbon mainly from plant sources and my metabolic processes exhale some of it out as CO2; what waste is left is generally good for manufacturing fertilizer. That fertilizer is used by plants again. I’ve noticed this process keeps going year in and year out, over and over again.
I use electricity that is produced in part by hydroelectric plants, by coal-fired electric plants, and by wind turbines. One of these enhances the air with additional CO2 so next year’s crop is likely to be more abundant than last year’s. The others simply convert kinetic energy in one place to kinetic and thermal energy in another.
I drive a vehicle that burns diesel; it contributes to the CO2 levels that benefit plants also, including trees that are growing at tremendous rates now. These will eventually be cut down, sawed into lumber and made into houses and fine furniture (with the occasional bonfire for fun), helping to solve housing problems for me and millions of others.
I recycle my plastics so they’re made back into plastic; I recycle my metals so they’re made into metal products, and my glass, too, which finds it’s way into feedstock for new glass products. My paper goes into the newspaper bin and that’s recycled, too.
When I die, I’ll probably be cremated, and eventually become part of the carbon cycle that will support other life forms the world over.
You don’t get much greener than that. (Isn’t carbon a wonderful thing?)
It isn’t Haliburton, so it doesn’t count. Silly Rabbit! Cronyism is for kids!
Stossel is a self-proclaimed libertarian so no doubt he’s got some bias in this piece, but who can honestly say that something doesn’t smell when the head of a federal weatherization program is married to the VP of a company whose business is making energy efficient windows and that benefited uniquely from a federal stimulus bill? Imagine if a Boeing VP were married to a DoD procurement boss. What could go wrong?
For the critics who obviously haven’t been paying enough attention to know that this video is not a slap-dash hack job, I’ll let John Stossel explain himself through his blog entries on crony capitalism. I look forward to apologies that it was actually a well-researched and considered hack job.
David: there are several definitions of SWAT teams on Wikipedia. You are cherry picking.
Don, I seriously doubt the SWAT team they’d deploy would be there to assist you with your software engineering. Do you?
Maybe serious Materials will now suffer a downturn. Obama endorsements seem to be a kiss of death these days. Just look what happened to Martha Coakley in Mass.
I’m convinced that the only way out of the mess is split the country.
Give the West Coast to the ecos, call it People’s Republic of Greenville or something, let every envio mental move there, they can have Al Gore as Chairman of the Communist Party and Sue Solomon as Minister of Science, then they can systematically demolish everything that runs on fossil fuel, the only prohibition is to re-enter America and attempt to regulate.
Greenville would quickly become a colossal foreign aid case, I would gladly pay my taxes for this if it would ensure they remained there
I wonder how many members of the “swat teams” will be Acorn union people. Just remember what BO said, we will no longer be able to set our thermostats to 72F. Mine is set at night for 58. Brrrrr
This also goes the warmers’ statements that corporations are the ones backing the “deniers.” Yeah, right.
Swat teams. It’s already started in Australia. A council of Government ministers decided that Australian homes should be fitted with “smart” electrical meters. This is COMPULSORY. The cost will be carried by the citixen. If you opt out of getting a smart meter, you get your power supplu cut off.
The economic scenarios before the roll-out produced a hopelessly wide range of outcomes for the smart meter program, many in the red, with one of 3 main rationales being “to reduce greenhouse gases”.
I suspect that the real story is that some Australian States are due to go overboard with solar and wind power. When the sun don’t shine and the wind don’t blow, they will need warning and a lead time to alter backup fossil fuel power, which is likely to be an expensive gas turbine type. So they are forcing the consumer to pay the cost of meters with radio telemetry so they can avoid making large economic losses through misallocation of backup.
The meter police will have the ability to enter premises at any time under the guise of detecting tampering.
The workers’ flag is deepest red ……
RocyRoad: Yes I believe that the team they deploy would be there to help.
If you listen to the tape, the term was used, as it is usually used in the Federal Government, as follows: A small team of skilled and experienced practitioners who can pull a failing project out of the ditch. This team does not tolerate political interference as it makes decisions and takes actions to bring the project to fruition.
That is just one several definitions. As a retired Federal employee I have been a member of SWAT teams. They were not police actions. The SWAT team in the tape was not forcing anything. I am afraid that Anthony totally misinterpreted the meaning. But Given the Super Bowl ad, which was funny, and all the Gate things, I can understand that. However, the emotional reaction to the term does not enhance the credibility of WUWT. It is best forgotten.
EYE opener, great find! thanks
Tim
Zeke the Sneak (17:33:44) : “You can still see that the groundwork for the ESTABLISHMENT OF NATIONAL CIVILIAN COMMUNITY CORPS PROGRAM with “a focus on energy conservation, environmental stewardship or conservation” is being laid right now.”
Ooh! Ooh! Do we get jackboots? Can we goose-step?
Despite all the equivocation above, SWAT is an acronym standing for Special Weapons And Tactics. It’s an armed force to be used primarily against citizens. Just because some envious agency wannabes have adopted it for other uses doesn’t mean the primary definition has somehow been watered down. ♪Whatcha gonna do when they come for YOU?♫
You have to seriously ask yourself are these people HUMAN!. In my entire life (55) I have never come across this type of mindset that even when confronted with empirical proof that what they are postulating is pure and simply wrong if not criminally wrong!. They will twitch, twitch and then carry on with the same rhetoric as if they never heard you?!. Most disturbing!. If anyone can get a saliva sample DNA of Al Gore tested we would all be interested.?
I really hope the blockquotes work properly here….
Aiding in the election is totally separate from work product once appointed to an admin position – and there are laws that delineate at least to some extent where those lines get drawn in terms of what partisan activities can be taken by an appointed person. Its very much apples and oranges. The President and his Admin is sworn to serve EVERYONE equally, not their particular political party over the other party. Bias creeps in of course, they are human – but this particular situation is gross and pretty clearly utterly inappropriate if not outright illegal.
Yes, but Gavin S is a federal employee, and as such it is ILLEGAL for him to do non-work activities while billing the government as if he’s doing his job. Its also ILLEGAL for him to use government equipement (computer, modem, phone line or ethernet or T1, etc etc) and office space for personal/non-job related activities.
Unless you are also a gov. employee, what you are doing, depending on the particular company you work for may be just fine and accepted within reasonable degrees, or it may be against company policy and a punishable offense perhaps even to the point of termination, it may be considered ‘stealing’ from the company since they’re paying you to do their work not your personal activities – but its pretty unlikely to be illegal.
In Gavin S’s position, he’s almost certainly been to HR employee meetings on some regular periodic basis that re-iteriates the illegality of such activies, and almost certainly even had to sign statements that he’s aware of. complies with zero tolerance policies against exactly those sorts of activities, and acknowledges that they are illegal acts that can lead to criminal prosecution.
In other words, there’s virtually no question that Gavin S’s posts and time creating those posts, when from his office and during working hours is worse than inappropriate, its actually illegal.
Why do I doubt that this Admin and his superiors will choose to take any action on the matter, however? Sigh.
addition to the Gavin S/Realclimate on the taxpayer’s dime issue: Not to mention the gross impropriety of, while on the taxpayer dime, pretending to present unbiased science when in reality its a cover up and gross advocacy, aimed at the very public that is paying one’s salary to do a job and provide results that are to be unbiased science.
All the while also helping pull the wool over the citizens of other countries also.
Its sickening on so many different levels.
Don E (22:06:20) :
RocyRoad: Yes I believe that the team they deploy would be there to help.
If you listen to the tape, the term was used, as it is usually used in the Federal Government, as follows: A small team of skilled and experienced practitioners who can pull a failing project out of the ditch. This team does not tolerate political interference as it makes decisions and takes actions to bring the project to fruition.
That is just one several definitions. As a retired Federal employee I have been a member of SWAT teams. They were not police actions. The SWAT team in the tape was not forcing anything. I am afraid that Anthony totally misinterpreted the meaning. But Given the Super Bowl ad, which was funny, and all the Gate things, I can understand that. However, the emotional reaction to the term does not enhance the credibility of WUWT. It is best forgotten.
—————————
Reply:
So the acronym “SWAT” to you stands for what? Can you expand on that, please?
I was horrified to learn that the green police superbowl ad wasn’t as far fetched as it appeared (at least to me) – but rather was actually based on some of the current laws in San Francisco.
I didn’t have a clue that anywhere had gone quite this far yet, although I knew California was further down the slippery slope than the majority of the USA. Talk about government intrusion and ultimate nanny state! I suppose its fine as long as its local – or statewide, because if you don’t like it you can move and that’s what our nation is supposed to be about…. but its an entirely different story for the federal government to mandate these things by fiat. It really is the slippery slope the entire nation is on and the direction the triumvirate of Obama/Pelosi/Reid is trying to force the entire nation.
Right now they’re putting together the latest version of the ‘childhood nutrition act.’ It’d give the federal government total control over exactly what foods could or couldn’t be in school cafeteria’s and vending machines throughout the nation, and they think that’s utterly reasonable, no, actually essential! These people have no clue what our constitution and federal republic is even all about.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35299173/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/
Schools are SUPPOSED to be local, not federal…. and local parents, school boards, PTA, etc., supposedly aren’t capable of deciding what is or isn’t ok to be in their own cafeterias and vending machines (if they allow vending machines in those particular schools). Talk about nanny state insanity and massive waste of taxdollars.
Anyhow, the ‘green police’ in San Francisco:
Why the “Green Police” Is So San Francisco
Audi car commercial “hits home” for Gavin Newsom and other city dwellers
By JACKSON WEST
Updated 5:39 AM PST, Tue, Feb 9, 2010
Audi’s “Green Police” Super Bowl ad was clearly out to mock environmentalist fervor — and it hit close to home in greener-than-thou San Francisco.
Perhaps that’s because it was the brainchild of Audi’s advertising agency, San Francisco independent Venables Bell & Partners.
Sitting squarely in the “I am white, middle-class man, hear me roar” school of ads, the Cheap Trick-scored commercial suggested a world in which the type of individual decisions that seem meaningless but in the aggregate make a difference are enforced by enthusiastic law enforcement professionals in green uniforms.
The implication: You can only escape the zealots if you buckle under and forego plastic grocery bags for paper (when you should be bringing your own, but you knew that).
One moment in particular resonated with San Franciscans: A man standing at a sink prepares to dump a rind in his sink’s disposal unit — an act ostensibly banned by San Francisco’s new composting mandate, one of Mayor Gavin Newsom’s many green initiatives.
Unless, of course, you buy an Audi. Because nothing says “I’m a real American, and not some effete liberal environmental lunatic” like an Audi.
The locally conceived advertisement was enough to get Newsom, who has pushed for the type of recycling and composting mandates that give the spot its believably authoritarian edge, was moved to tweet, “Ok .. That “green police” Audi commercial hits home.”
If Venables Bell really wanted to twist the knife, though, wouldn’t they point out that an Audi designed for ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel would probably emit less pollution than the city-owned hybrid SUV Newsom is currently being driven around in?
I’m am in the “too close to reality” crowd. Thanks for the article and the voice of reason.
Rational, I too work for the Federal Government, I write what I do to help to dispel irrational fears, I wish more people in the Federal Government would speak out against what they know to be false projections and impossible scenarios based on false premises.
> People are smart enough to…
Any sentence that starts with those words is doomed.
Rockyroad: Special Weapons And Tactics (or Training). It is more of a military than police concept. The Federal Government does have more of a military mindset e.g., the War on Poverty. Rescue efforts (Natural disasters, pandemics, economic disasters; the public jobs program in the 70’s) are often conducted in a military type organizational structure; command and control, rapid deployment etc. Special weapons can be people with specialized skills or training. The tactic can be saturation. If you watch TV re special teams of federal experts helping local officials deal with a unique problem is an example, although those are often police dramas.
Don E (20:06:01) :
“David: there are several definitions of SWAT teams on Wikipedia. You are cherry picking”
When I Google “Swat Team” the first hit is to the Wiki article that I cliped from. It’s at; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWAT It does not mention Swat teams of the type you describe. It does not mention any type of SWAT team other than the police Swat team.
The second hit is Anthony’s article
The 3rd hit is to an online dictionary definition. It defines SWAT as :
n. 1. a special group of police trained to deal with unusually dangerous or violent situations, and having special weapons, such as rifles more powerful than those carried by regular police officers. They are employed, for example, in situations when hostages are being held, or heavily armed persons need to be captured. Called also SWAT or S.W.A.T..
4th hit shows videos of SWAT teams in action. (Definitely police)
5th hit Training – Special Operations.Com ( more police)
I don’t come across an environmental Swat team until the the 9th hit.
So how am I cherry picking? I believe I used the most common understanding of the term.
When I hear the government talking about SWAT teams I think Ruby Ridge and Waco. Perhaps they should find a new term that doesn’t have such historical negativity.
Here in the uk we seem so much further down the road to ruin. Put your refuse out on the wrong day,lid not fully closed,wrong type of refuse, organic waste too large to be kitchen scraps(sproit stems for example), bin overfull etc. It doednt end there. Buy alcohol in a supermarket with your teenage offspring, not allowed this one from the fat police, a customer was not allowed to purchase a slice of quiche ffs(no one knows why, store said over zealous till checkout operative but there must exist somewhere in the rules something along those lines. Figure that out.
D. Gallagher – When I hear SWAT, I think of Lt. Hunter on Hill Street Blues. I do remember Ruby Ridge and Waco, but HSB predated them so I have a more benign vision of SWAT.