President Barack Obamas decision yesterday to reject a permit for TransCanada Corp.s Keystone XL oil pipeline may prompt Canada to turn to China for oil exports.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in a telephone call yesterday, told Obama Canada will continue to work to diversify its energy exports, according to details provided by Harpers office. Canadian Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver said relying less on the U.S. would help strengthen the countrys financial security.
The decision by the Obama administration underlines the importance of diversifying and expanding our markets, including the growing Asian market, Oliver told reporters in Ottawa.
Glad to see the operant conditioning site rules are working...
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/20/2012 15:36 Comments ||
Top||
#6
The Greenies assertion that this will decrease emissions is really stupid. The oil will be sent to Asia by tankers which emit "Bad Stuff" and then the oil itself will emit "Bad Stuff". This will increase emissions. Bugwits.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/20/2012 15:48 Comments ||
Top||
#7
#6 The Greenies assertion that this will decrease emissions is really stupid.
Yup. The Greenies "feel" they are saving the planet; it is the new religion. Their position is not particularly well-reasoned out or based on good science. Science has become a corrupted process in their hands, agenda driven and politicized. They would have us all living as the Taliban live--somewhere in the 7th century.
Suppose Obama gave Keystone the green light today. No doubt he would be rewarded with political media support for his economic decision. All from Canadian oil companies (who are still alive do not vote in US elections) and construction trade unions (in flyover states he is not going to win anyway), and upset the eviro weenies and their guilt ridden libranos who still think Algore is the best president you never had.
Moreover, the entire Green Revolution is looking more and more like Humpty Dumpty. Give Keystone the go ahead today, assured cheap oil, secure supply, and the whole green empire goes the way of Solyndra. Say nothing of the contributions that flow into BO's re-election campaign.
The Green Dream is going to collapse anyway, it just need to happen in December 2012.
First posted by Beavis (without link)This will give you heartburn!
U.S. Attorney General Eric Inaction Jackson Holder and Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, were partners for years at a Washington law firm that represented a Who's Who of big banks and other companies at the center of alleged foreclosure fraud, a Reuters inquiry shows.
The firm, Covington & Burling, is one of Washington's biggest white shoe law firms. Law professors and other federal ethics experts said that federal conflict of interest rules required Holder and Breuer to recuse themselves from any Justice Department decisions relating to law firm clients they personally had done work for.
Both the Justice Department and Covington declined to say if either official had personally worked on matters for the big mortgage industry clients. Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said Holder and Breuer had complied fully with conflict of interest regulations, but she declined to say if they had recused themselves from any matters related to the former clients.
Reuters reported in December that under Holder and Breuer, the Justice Department hasn't brought any criminal cases against big banks or other companies involved in mortgage servicing, even though copious evidence has surfaced of apparent criminal violations in foreclosure cases.
The evidence, including records from federal and state courts and local clerks' offices around the country, shows widespread forgery, perjury, obstruction of justice, and illegal foreclosures on the homes of thousands of active-duty military personnel.
In recent weeks the Justice Department has come under renewed pressure from members of Congress, state and local officials and homeowners' lawyers to open a wide-ranging criminal investigation of mortgage servicers, the biggest of which have been Covington clients. So far Justice officials haven't responded publicly to any of the requests.
While Holder and Breuer were partners at Covington, the firm's clients included the four largest U.S. banks - Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo & Co - as well as at least one other bank that is among the 10 largest mortgage servicers.
DEFENDER OF FREDDIE
Servicers perform routine mortgage maintenance tasks, including filing foreclosures, on behalf of mortgage owners, usually groups of investors who bought mortgage-backed securities.
Covington represented Freddie Mac, one of the nation's biggest issuers of mortgage backed securities, in enforcement investigations by federal financial regulators.
A particular concern by those pressing for an investigation is Covington's involvement with Virginia-based MERS Corp, which runs a vast computerized registry of mortgages. Little known before the mortgage crisis hit, MERS, which stands for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, has been at the center of complaints about false or erroneous mortgage documents. More if you can handle it!
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, were partners for years at a Washington law firm that represented a Who's Who of big banks and other companies at the center of alleged foreclosure fraud, a Reuters inquiry shows.
The firm, Covington & Burling, is one of Washington's biggest white shoe law firms. Law professors and other federal ethics experts said that federal conflict of interest rules required Holder and Breuer to recuse themselves from any Justice Department decisions relating to law firm clients they personally had done work for.
Both the Justice Department and Covington declined to say if either official had personally worked on matters for the big mortgage industry clients. Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said Holder and Breuer had complied fully with conflict of interest regulations, but she declined to say if they had recused themselves from any matters related to the former clients.
Reuters reported in December that under Holder and Breuer, the Justice Department hasn't brought any criminal cases against big banks or other companies involved in mortgage servicing, even though copious evidence has surfaced of apparent criminal violations in foreclosure cases.
The evidence, including records from federal and state courts and local clerks' offices around the country, shows widespread forgery, perjury, obstruction of justice, and illegal foreclosures on the homes of thousands of active-duty military personnel.
In recent weeks the Justice Department has come under renewed pressure from members of Congress, state and local officials and homeowners' lawyers to open a wide-ranging criminal investigation of mortgage servicers, the biggest of which have been Covington clients. So far Justice officials haven't responded publicly to any of the requests.
While Holder and Breuer were partners at Covington, the firm's clients included the four largest U.S. banks - Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo & Co - as well as at least one other bank that is among the 10 largest mortgage servicers.
DEFENDER OF FREDDIE
Servicers perform routine mortgage maintenance tasks, including filing foreclosures, on behalf of mortgage owners, usually groups of investors who bought mortgage-backed securities.
Covington represented Freddie Mac, one of the nation's biggest issuers of mortgage backed securities, in enforcement investigations by federal financial regulators.
A particular concern by those pressing for an investigation is Covington's involvement with Virginia-based MERS Corp, which runs a vast computerized registry of mortgages. Little known before the mortgage crisis hit, MERS, which stands for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, has been at the center of complaints about false or erroneous mortgage documents.
Court records show that Covington, in the late 1990s, provided legal opinion letters needed to create MERS on behalf of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and several other large banks. It was meant to speed up registration and transfers of mortgages. By 2010, MERS claimed to own about half of all mortgages in the U.S. -- roughly 60 million loans
Its widespread housing collapse, deadlocked state government and perennial budget crises made California one of the whipping boys of the global financial crisis.
But this week Jerry Brown, Democratic governor of the most populous US state, decided to hit back.
California has problems, he conceded in his annual "state of the state" address, "but rumours of its demise are greatly exaggerated".
In a punchy speech, Mr Brown reiterated his commitment to costly infrastructure projects, such as a statewide high-speed rail network. But he also implored voters to back temporary tax increases, which he said would restore the state's fiscal health. "With enough time, we ... should devise more permanent tax reform but for now we should finish the job of bringing spending into balance with revenues," he said. How about spending cuts to bring it more in line with revenue? See Illinois for a current example of Liberal spending/tax hike fail. Every tax increase is "temporary". Every single one...
Posted by: kelly ||
01/20/2012 11:16 Comments ||
Top||
#4
That's it California, drive EVERY business you have left out of the state. I already consider it a fourth world country.
Next Step for California: Cannibalism.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Halliburton Lost Drill Bit Division ||
01/20/2012 11:41 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Next stop for California, realistically, is an increasing number of latino politicians being voted in by the increasing number of latino voters. Then a possible return to Mexico and the flight of the remaining gringos. Probably a few decades off but the path is being paved as we speak.
The Supreme Court on Friday ruled in a Texas political dispute, rejecting judge-drawn election maps favoring minority candidates and Democrats in the 2012 congressional and state legislature elections.
This is big.
In its first ruling on political boundary-drawing based on the 2010 U.S. Census, the high court unanimously set aside the interim maps created by federal district court judges in San Antonio.
The high court said it was unclear whether the judges in Texas followed the appropriate standards
*Slap!*
and sent the cases back for further proceedings.
At issue were the maps that Texas will use in its primary contests set for April 3 that will decide party candidates for congressional and state legislature elections in November.
The dispute had been closely watched because it could help decide whether Republicans or Democrats gain as many as four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in November.
Texas Republican officials appealed to the Supreme Court, said the lower-court overstepped its authority and argued the judges should have deferred to the maps drawn by the elected lawmakers. Those maps favor Republican candidates.
The officials won at least a partial victory, though the court stopped short of adopting the maps drawn by the Republican-dominated legislature. YES! A blow against the black robed tyrants!
What will happen if the Supreme Court doesn't approve a map by April 2nd?
#1
What Texas should have down was arrested the judges for treason against the state of Texas and executed them quickly. At some point the states are going to have to stand up federal tyranny and the rule of Supreme Ass-Monkey of the Universe Obama.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Halliburton Lost Drill Bit Division ||
01/20/2012 11:45 Comments ||
Top||
#2
This is what you get when the country goes haywire and elects a scrawny assed Kenyan to the office of the President of the United States of America, who was promised 7/24 golf outings, unlimited domestic and international travel to him and the wife, as long as he fills the role of an empty suite who is to read from a teleprompter and sign Socialist/Marxist regulations against capitalism and the right.
#3
The SCT kicked this back down to the District court. The District court can still redraw the maps, but it must take into account the wishes of the TX legislature -- something all 9 SCT Justices agreed that the District court did not do the first time around.
The District court has until Feb 1 to come up with new maps. My guess is that they are already furious working with the Democrats who brought this suit to come up with something just as awful as the first set. These maps will be provisional until the case makes it way through the entire judicial process -- something which will take years. That's OK with the Dems. They have lost elections. They have lost seats. But they are still happy to postpone the full impact of those losses.
#5
Better yet, Justice Thomas rather pointedly noted that Section 5 of the Civil Rights Act (the section that gives the DoJ the right to review election maps) is, in his opinion, unconstitutional. The other justices declined to go along with him (this time) but that line of legal reasoning just has to scare the bejeebus out of the progressive legal community.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/20/2012 15:34 Comments ||
Top||
#6
The Progressives must have sensed something in Justice Thomas when he was being considered for appointment. Black conservatives just don't fit into their meme. The Anita Hill thing was despicable but follows their M.O.
Possibility here of picking up 4 seats in the House.
#7
Well, somewhere and maybe not Texas, they will find lots of dead people to vote. Democrat party always have been a sham. It should go down in history as evil.
The chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorneys Office in Arizona is refusing to testify before Congress regarding Operation Fast and Furious, the federal gun-running scandal that sent U.S. weapons to Mexico.
Patrick J. Cunningham informed the House Oversight Committee late Thursday through his attorney that he will use the Fifth Amendment protection.
Cunningham was ordered Wednesday to appear before Chairman Darrell Issa and the House Oversight Committee regarding his role in the operation that sent more than 2,000 guns to the Sinaloa Cartel. Guns from the failed operation were found at the murder scene of Border Agent Brian Terry.
The letter from Cunninghams Washington DC attorney stunned congressional staff. Last week, Cunningham, the second highest ranking U.S. Attorney in Arizona, was scheduled to appear before Issas committee voluntarily. Then, he declined and Issa issued a subpoena.
Cunningham is represented by Tobin Romero of Williams and Connolly who is a specialist in white collar crime. In the letter, he suggests witnesses from the Department of Justice in Washington, who have spoken in support of Attorney General Eric Holder, are wrong or lying.
Department of Justice officials have reported to the Committee that my client relayed inaccurate information to the Department upon which it relied in preparing its initial response to Congress. If, as you claim, Department officials have blamed my client, they have blamed him unfairly, the letter to Issa says.
Romero claims Cunningham did nothing wrong and acted in good faith, but the Department of Justice in Washington is making him the fall guy, claiming he failed to accurately provide the Oversight Committee with information on the execution of Fast and Furious.
"To avoid needless preparation by the Committee and its staff for a deposition next week, I am writing to advise you that my client is going to assert his constitutional privilege not to be compelled to be a witness against himself." Romero told Issa.
This schism is the first big break in what has been a unified front in the governments defense of itself in the gun-running scandal. Cunningham claims he is a victim of a conflict between two branches of government and will not be compelled to be a witnesses against himself, and make a statement that could be later used by a grand jury or special prosecutor to indict him on criminal charges.
The chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorneys Office in Arizona is refusing to testify before Congress regarding Operation Fast and Furious, the federal gun-running scandal that sent U.S. weapons to Mexico.
Patrick J. Cunningham informed the House Oversight Committee late Thursday through his attorney that he will use the Fifth Amendment protection.
Cunningham was ordered Wednesday to appear before Chairman Darrell Issa and the House Oversight Committee regarding his role in the operation that sent more than 2,000 guns to the Sinaloa Cartel. Guns from the failed operation were found at the murder scene of Border Agent Brian Terry.
The letter from Cunninghams Washington DC attorney stunned congressional staff. Last week, Cunningham, the second highest ranking U.S. Attorney in Arizona, was scheduled to appear before Issas committee voluntarily. Then, he declined and Issa issued a subpoena.
Cunningham is represented by Tobin Romero of Williams and Connolly who is a specialist in white collar crime. In the letter, he suggests witnesses from the Department of Justice in Washington, who have spoken in support of Attorney General Eric Holder, are wrong or lying.
Department of Justice officials have reported to the Committee that my client relayed inaccurate information to the Department upon which it relied in preparing its initial response to Congress. If, as you claim, Department officials have blamed my client, they have blamed him unfairly, the letter to Issa says.
Romero claims Cunningham did nothing wrong and acted in good faith, but the Department of Justice in Washington is making him the fall guy, claiming he failed to accurately provide the Oversight Committee with information on the execution of Fast and Furious.
"To avoid needless preparation by the Committee and its staff for a deposition next week, I am writing to advise you that my client is going to assert his constitutional privilege not to be compelled to be a witness against himself." Romero told Issa.
This schism is the first big break in what has been a unified front in the governments defense of itself in the gun-running scandal. Cunningham claims he is a victim of a conflict between two branches of government and will not be compelled to be a witnesses against himself, and make a statement that could be later used by a grand jury or special prosecutor to indict him on criminal charges.
Anonymous has sure been quiet lately, but today's federal bust of Megaupload riled 'em up good: a retaliatory strike against DoJ.gov (and plenty of other foes) leaving them completely dead.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Its widespread housing collapse, deadlocked state government and perennial budget crises made California one of the whipping boys of the global financial crisis.
The Supreme Court on Friday ruled in a Texas political dispute, rejecting judge-drawn election maps favoring minority candidates and Democrats in the 2012 congressional and state legislature elections.
The chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorneys Office in Arizona is refusing to testify before Congress regarding Operation Fast and Furious, the federal gun-running scandal that sent U.S. weapons to Mexico.
