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MALKIN: 2011 was a year of widespread self-serving scandals, scamsMICHELLE MALKIN December 29, 2011 6:37 PM With 2011 drawing to a close, it is time to account. As an early-and-often chronicler of Chicago-on-the-Potomac, I am amazed at the stubborn and clingy persistence of President Barack Obama’s snowblowers in the media. See no scandal, hear no scandal, speak no scandal. Dartmouth College professor Brendan Nyhan asserted in May — while Operation Fast and Furious subpoenas were flying on Capitol Hill — that “one of the least remarked upon aspects of the Obama presidency has been the lack of scandals.” Conveniently, he...

was once known as 'The World's Foremost Authority'. Professor Irwin Corey, comedian, actor and left-wing political activist, strolls along Manhattan's East 35th Street pan-handling every day, seven days a week, for the last 17 years. Of course professor Corey - who has enjoyed a long and illustrious career spanning Broadway, television, theatre and comedy clubs - does not need the money. In fact he is not even homeless, despite his scruffy, scrawny appearance, but has an apartment in an affluent area of New York which he believes to be worth $3.5million. His reasons for posing as a homeless down-and-outer and...

Ozone loss over the Arctic this year was so severe that for the first time it could be called an "ozone hole" like the Antarctic one, scientists report. About 20km (13 miles) above the ground, 80% of the ozone was lost, they say. The cause was an unusually long spell of cold weather at altitude. In cold conditions, the chlorine chemicals that destroy ozone are at their most active. It is currently impossible to predict if such losses will occur again, the team writes in the journal Nature.

NASA Advances Evaluation of Piantelli’s LENR Research Posted on September 28, 2011 by Steven B. Krivit Multiple sources have confirmed to New Energy Times that a team comprising NASA engineers and an investment group from the U.S. is expanding its interest in the low-energy nuclear reaction research of Italian biophysicist Francesco Piantelli. A meeting with the group and representatives of Piantelli will take place in the next few days. According to Dennis Bushnell, chief scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, NASA was working months ago on experiments based on Piantelli’s research. Piantelli’s work with LENR goes back...

Not content with having invented the internet, the great Climate Science communicator Al Gore appears to have developed still more miraculous skills of late: the ability to turn 17,000 into 8.6 million – just like that. The figures refer to the number of "views" for Gore's special "24 Hours Of ManBearPig" which this column helped celebrate the other day. Gore claims that as many as 8.6 million flocked to his thrilling festival of climate fear; but a nasty cruel man called Charles the Moderator at Watts Up With That? has "done the math" and reckons the figure is probably more...

I'm posting my situation on a thread in order to alert others to be on the look out of ways the government, especially the local government, may be ripping us off. I believe we are being targeted as fools to pay for our politicians shortfalls. I live in Maryland, a very liberal state which taxes everything, and am seeing signs they are desperate to raise money instead of ways to cut spending. Here is a situation I found myself in recently: I received a "final notice" for speed monitoring violation from the town of Forest Heights PD (Maryland). However, I...

Many people have seen - and shared - an article online with the catchy headline, "Scientists cure cancer, but no one takes notice." Surely if a cure for cancer had been discovered, people would notice, right? The link being circulated via Facebook and other social media sites is to a poorly-written HubPages article which states, "Researchers at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Canada have cured cancer last week, yet there is a little ripple in the news or in TV. It is a simple technique using very basic drug. The method employs dichloroacetate, which is currently used to treat...

May 27, 2011, 12:01 a.m. EDT Why men are easy prey for investment scams Know if you’re vulnerable to fraud and protect yourself By Robert Powell, MarketWatch BOSTON (MarketWatch) — As someone whose family was affected personally by the Bernie Madoff scheme, and as someone who knew Brad Bleidt, a Boston-based scam artist who misdeeds preceded Madoff’s, I’m deeply concerned about the issue of investment fraud. So, too, is John Gannon, the president of the Education Foundation at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, known as Finra. Gannon was among those who spoke this week at Boston University’s Future of Lifecycle...

I recently sold a camera on eBay. The buyer was very insistent on 2nd day delivery. Paid by PayPal yesterday, and I shipped FedEx 2nd business day yesterday. I sent tracking info to buyer with expected delivery 5/31 yesterday, he responded with thanks and paid extra again thru PayPal for the expedited shipping. This morning he filed a PayPal claim for nondelivery/not as described. My PayPal account is frozen and, because I already transferred the $$, is overdrawn. Fortunately, I can still retrieve the camera from FedEx. It's obvious to me that this is a scam, but how does it...

A controversial law firm that tried to get money from computer users by accusing them of illegal file sharing could be hit with massive legal fees. ACS:Law and its one solicitor, Andrew Crossley, sent thousands of letters threatening recipients with court action if they did not pay out. Now a judge has ruled that the company may be responsible for wasted costs in the case and ordered a full hearing. Mr Crossley's lawyers declined to comment. The proceedings represent something of a role reversal. Originally the Patents County Court had been asked to hear the cases brought by Mr Crossley's...

Scam artists from around the world, capitalizing on lax regulations at the Danish emissions trading registry, have made off with an estimated $7-billion over the last two years, according to Europol. Denmark’s Office of the Auditor General is now investigating the fraud, which occurred after the Danish registry dropped requirements that carbon traders be documented. While allowing a free-for-all served the carbon market on the short term, by appearing to inflate the interest in carbon as a commodity, it ultimately backfired when much of the trading proved to be phony. Read more: http://opinion.financialpost.com/2010/12/05/lawrence-solomon-the-7-billion-carbon-scam/#ixzz17RgHIzXh

The last fertilizer trading market, at the Chicago Climate Exchange, died and closed due to nobody wanting to buy the brand of fertilizer they were selling. Besides that example, I have to think this might not fare any better, simply because farmers really don’t want yet another intrusion into their lives by the Maryland Department of the Environment. Image: Tiny Farm Blog - click for more From the University of Maryland:Rewarding Eco-Friendly Farmers Can Help Combat Climate ChangeUMD Study Advises State on Creation of ‘Nutrient Trading Market’COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Financially rewarding farmers for using the best fertilizer management practices...

Airport passenger screening measures have become a touchy issue in the U.S. in the past week, but in the past year the controversial measures have detected more than 130 prohibited, illegal or dangerous items that otherwise would have made it onto airplanes, the Transportation Security Administration says. The TSA now requires all passengers at some U.S. airports either to pass through a full-body scanning device, which reveals everything beneath their clothing, or to submit to a thorough pat-down inspection -- a choice that has some travelers livid about their loss of privacy. But the TSA says keeping passengers safe is...

An Austrian woman failed to look a gift cat in the mouth and ended up $31,000 US poorer and without the free animal promised in an online scam, Austrian media reported Wednesday. The 19-year-old woman from Salzburg province had found an offer for a free “British Shorthair” cat on the Internet, broadcaster ORF reported. Instead of delivering the gift, the purported cat donor started asking for money transfers to Cameroon for vaccinations, air transport, official papers and quarantine costs, promising that the money would be repaid later. The woman made 23 transfers, but her furry friend was never sent, the...

A baby-faced band of "money mules" helped an Eastern European hackerring transfer $3 million in cash it pilfered from American bank accounts, federal prosecutors in New York said yesterday. The group, including several women who are college co-eds here on student visas, was allegedly tasked with opening hundreds of bank accounts used to receive the stolen funds.

McDonald's Corp. has warned federal regulators that it could drop its health insurance plan for nearly 30,000 hourly restaurant workers unless regulators waive a new requirement of the U.S. health overhaul. The move is one of the clearest indications that new rules may disrupt workers' health plans as the law ripples through the real world. Trade groups representing restaurants and retailers say low-wage employers might halt their coverage if the government doesn't loosen a requirement for "mini-med" plans, which offer limited benefits to some 1.4 million Americans.

After digging deep into the archives with Mark Twain, Apollo-era NASA scientists, and the promoter of the helicopter, we're coming back to the recent past, the June 2007 issue. In it we find Ron Rosenbaum's fascinating feature about a group of anti-scammers who prank, humiliate and defeat the people who e-mail you with tales of Senegalese princes, or barristers in London, or whatever. They hang out together on a site called 419eater, where they swap tips and show off "trophies" of their exploits. And of those trophies, the carved and polished wood replica of the Commodore 64 has got to...

Bono's anti-poverty foundation ONE is under pressure to explain its lavish salaries after it was revealed that only a small percentage of money it raises reaches the needy. The non-profit organisation set up by the U2 frontman received almost £9.6m in donations in 2008 but handed out only £118,000 to good causes (1.2 per cent). The figures published by the New York Post also show that £5.1m went towards paying salaries. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1314543/Bonos-ONE-foundation-giving-tiny-percentage-funds-charity.html#ixzz10N2I90T2

(09-16) 14:36 PDT SAN BRUNO -- Two women were charged Thursday with trying to impersonate victims of last week's deadly pipeline blast in San Bruno, as state and local authorities warned that identity thieves, unscrupulous contractors and others seeking to wring profit from tragedy would be punished severely. "We view them as vermin," said Steve Wagstaffe, San Mateo County's chief deputy district attorney, referring to anyone caught exploiting the fiery rupture of a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. natural gas transmission line, which destroyed 37 homes and killed at least four people. He said suspects would not be offered plea...

SNIP....Anyway, all this got me to thinking about all the scams that people have fallen prey to over the years. So, for your reading pleasure, here are seven of my favorites, in no particular order. Oh, and it goes without saying, "Don't try any of these at home." [Why Old People Make Good Scam Targets]

Anthony Weiner, get thee to a phar macy -- fast. If ever anyone would appear to be a candidate for medication, it's the terminally excitable Brooklyn Democrat, who threw yet another temper tantrum Thursday on the floor of the House of Representatives. There was Weiner, his voice screeching, flailing away at Republicans who opposed the Zadroga health-care bill for folks who claim to be victims of 9/11- related maladies. The bill fell short of the two-thirds majority demanded by his fellow Democrats. "Sit down! You sit down!" shrieked Weiner, as one Republican tried to get him to yield. Nor is...

Sprinkled in among the headlining technologies represented at the expo were small companies with ideas you may never have heard of, technologies that have found their way into niche markets and that are described below. As congressional staffers questioned the representatives from these companies, cost was one of the primary concerns. Again and again, the salespeople made the same pitch: their technologies, which tend to be more expensive up front, would pay for themselves in the long run.

Remember why unions were formed in the first place -- to protect workers from being taken advantage of? Nowadays, the rank-and-file mostly need protection from their own leadership. Daniel Hughes, former head of the Field Supervisor Association representing Port Authority workers, pleaded guilty in Brooklyn federal court this week to looting $300,000 in members' dues over five years. The union heavyweight allegedly used the money for Queens hotel trysts with hookers, casino getaways and high-priced dinners. A rare occurrence? Hardly. Last May, ex-Central Labor Council boss and former Queens Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin was sentenced to 10 years for embezzlement --...

Self-confessed serial con artist at-large Bobbi Ann Finley is accused of marrying dozens of military men, stealing their savings, and disappearing. Military and law enforcement agencies in at least half a dozen states including California have warrants out for her. According to the Daily Mail, Finley finds her prey, men due to be deployed overseas, near U.S. military bases. She tells them that she is the daughter of a Marine Corps general who is owed a large inheritance that can only be claimed if she is married, and when she gets her wedding ring she soon allegedly takes off with...

For most lawmakers, DWI stands for “driving while intoxicated.” For Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), DWI stands for “driving while illegal.” In an appearance on "The O'Reilly Factor" on Tuesday Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said that illegal immigrants were intentionally causing car accidents along state freeways. (snip) "Look, our border is not secured. Our citizens are not safe," he said.

The Army's version of NCIS is warning about a particularly disturbing online scam that's taking advantage of lonely women with big hearts for U.S. servicemen in need. The Army Criminal Investigation Command says con artists are trolling social and dating Web sites, pretending to be U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. Some of the crooks take the rank and name of a legitimate soldier and use random photos to build a believable profile. Once they hook someone, their method is to woo the woman and then ask for money for such things as a laptop computer, an international cell...

In definitely asserting that climate change would cause flooding and drought the adverts went beyond mainstream scientific consensus, the watchdog said. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that the adverts – which were based on the children's poems Jack and Jill and Rub-A-Dub-Dub – made exaggerated claims about the threat to Britain from global warming. In definitely asserting that climate change would cause flooding and drought the adverts went beyond mainstream scientific consensus, the watchdog said. It noted that predictions about the potential global impact of global warming made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) "involved uncertainties" that...

The international carbon market has been hit by a phishing attack which saw an estimated 250,000 permits worth over 3 million euros stolen this week. The scam involves six German companies and meant emissions trading registries in a number of EU countries shut down temporarily on 2 February. In the global carbon market, companies can buy permits from other firms, allowing them to emit greenhouse gases. The criminals are believed to have created fake emissions registries. They then sent e-mails to thousands of firms around the globe, including New Zealand, Norway and Australia. "It was a world-wide action," Hans-Juergen Nantke,...

It was a mix of the old and the new Wednesday as the Denver/Boulder Better Business Bureau released its list of 2009’s Top 10 Scams and Ripoffs. The list includes both local and national activity. “While fraudulent checks, wire-transfer scams and vague free-trial offers continue to wreak havoc in the marketplace, other circumstances in 2009 made way for new schemes and unethical activity,” the BBB said in a news release. The bureau cited such events as Colorado’s storms, the H1N1 virus and the struggling economy as new areas for scammers. Dale Mingilton, president/CEO of the BBB, cautions consumers to: •...

Wall Street sees carbon trading and related derivative products as the next big thing in financial innovation. Critics say it's the next big financial mess. Carbon trading provides a way for companies to stimulate green energy and carbon reduction projects by financing them through the purchase of carbon credits. Such trading has slowed over the past year or so amid uncertainty about regulations and global emissions targets. Eventually, though, many expect carbon trading to balloon into a multitrillion-dollar business. FOE and other environmental groups have been pressing the Senate to pass legislation that puts strict limits on banks' involvement in...

In the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”, Al Gore argues that historically, when the levels of carbon dioxide rises that is cause the temperatures of earth to rise considerably. In his documentary, Gore explains that ice core records from the distant past proves this point. However, when the data is looked at in finer detail, it becomes obvious that temperature is driving the hight levels of carbon dioxide not the other way around as Gore and his fellow watermelon political allies would like us to believe. I call them watermelon because they may be green on the outside, but they are...

The best way to prevent vote fraud is to BE THERE. Vote fraud is one of the greatest threats to our republic. In some precincts I have seen 10% or more of the total votes that were fraudulent. As I have posted several times over the years, there are many methods for scamming the election. On 12/12/09, last Saturday, we had the mayoral runoff election in Houston. I was an Election Judge, and Freeper Zeppelin ably assisted. We ran a totally clean election following every election law to the letter. PLEASE consider volunteering for this vitally important work. To be...

We can only hope that world leaders will do nothing more than enjoy a pleasant bicycle ride around the charming streets of Copenhagen come December. For if they actually manage to wring out an agreement based on the current draft text of the Copenhagen climate-change treaty, the world is in for some nasty surprises. Draft text, you say? If you haven't heard about it, that's because none of our otherwise talkative political leaders have bothered to tell us what the drafters have already cobbled together for leaders to consider. And neither have the media. Enter Lord Christopher Monckton. The former...

Science: For two years, our space agency has refused Freedom of Information requests on why it has repeatedly corrected its climate figures. A leading researcher threatens to sue to find more inconvenient truths. What's become known as "Climate-Gate" may be about to explode on this side of the pond as well. Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, has threatened a lawsuit against NASA if by year-end the agency doesn't honor his FOI requests for information on how and why its climate numbers have been consistently adjusted for errors. "I assume that what is there is highly...

Warming Scandal: The architect of climate fraud steps down, the creator of the infamous "hockey stick" is investigated, and Australia's parliament defeats cap-and-trade. We love the smell of truth in the morning. As the high priests of what Czech President Vaclav Klaus has called a "religion" prepare their pilgrimage to worship the earth goddess Gaia in Copenhagen, complete with humanity being sacrificed, the heresy of climate truth is finally being heard. The gospel of climate change, once expressed with the messianic fervor of an Elmer Gantry by Al Gore, is now expressed with the stammering incoherence of an Elmer Fudd...

ClimateGate: Britain's Climate Research Unit now says it will release all its data. Does that include the data that have been shredded, deleted and denied publication? In a statement released Saturday by the University of East Anglia, where the CRU is located, it was announced that all unit data, including data that had been denied climate skeptics, would soon be released to prove this is much ado about nothing. Unimpressed by the news is David Holland of Northampton, a grandfather with a background in electrical engineering, who is seeking prosecution of the CRU scientists involved in suppressing and even destroying...

President Obama's climate czar, Carol M. Browner, claims that Climategate is not important and that global warming is settled science. "[The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has] been studying this issue for a very long time and agree this problem is real," she said last week, six days after the scandal first broke about fudged global-warming research. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs repeated the claim yesterday. This obtuseness exposes the Obama administration's complicity in aiding and abetting the fraud involved to stir up climate-change hysteria. Responsibility for continuing to perpetuate this scandal goes all the way to the top....

The Environment Agency will argue today that carbon rationing is the fairest and most effective way for the UK to meet its legally binding targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The Agency’s chairman, Lord Smith, will propose at the organisation's annual conference in London that every citizen be provided with a "carbon account" and unique number that they submit when buying carbon-intensive items such as petrol, electricity or airline tickets. Individuals would then periodically receive statements that show the carbon impact of each purchase and how much of their annual ration has been used up. If they exceeded this ration,...

The Climate and Health Council, a collaboration of worldwide health organizations including the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal Society of Medicine, believes there is a direct link between climate change and better health. Their controversial plan would see GPs and nurses give out advice to their patients on how to lower their carbon footprint. The Council believes that climate change “threatens to radically undermine the health of all peoples”. It believes health professionals are ideally placed to promote change because “we have ethical responsibility…..as well as the capacity to influence people and our...

The carbon market could become double the size of the vast oil market, according to the new breed of City players who trade greenhouse gas emissions through the EU's emissions trading scheme. The ETS market may see $3tn (£1.8tn) worth of transactions a year in the next decade or two, according to Andrew Ager, head of emissions trading at Bache Commodities in London, with it even being used as a hedge against falling equities or rising inflation. "It is still a relatively new industry with annual trades of around €300bn every year. But this could grow to around $3tn compared...

The CRU scandal has already ensnared Britain's leading climate "scientist" Phil Jones (whom one principled leftie says has only "a few days left in which to make an honourable exit") and his American counterpart Michael Mann (as in "Mann-made global warming"). Given that these two men and their respective institutions are the leading warm-mongers on the planet, and the guys who dominate the IPCC, Copenhagen et al, it would be most unlikely if the widespread data-raping were confined only to the United Kingdom and the United States. Here's an interesting snippet from my colleagues at Investigate magazine in New Zealand...

While on the board of a Chicago-based charity, Barack Obama helped fund a carbon trading exchange that will likely play a critical role in the cap-and-trade carbon reduction program he is now trying to push through Congress as president. In 2000 and 2001, while Barack Obama served as a board member for a Chicago-based charitable foundation, he helped to fund a pioneering carbon trading exchange that is likely to fill a critical role in the controversial cap-and-trade carbon reduction scheme that President Obama is now trying to push rapidly through Congress. During those two years, the Joyce Foundation gave nearly...

Even in a bad economy, people still reach deep into their pockets to help out those who are less fortunate, especially as the holidays draw near. However, in good times or bad, it’s important to know that the money you are giving to a charity is truly being put to good use. Many con artists try to cheat people out of their dollars by pretending to be involved in a legitimate charitable organization. The Indiana CPA Society offers these questions to ask to ensure you are avoiding charity scams.

http://www.postonpolitics.com/2009/11/rothstein-gave-200k-to-gop-governors/ http://malomanblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/kswp_07.jpg

Pretty sure I'm not the first to have noticed this: OK, you want buy something to read, a magazine - cost is, say, $2.50. How much time do you spend researching possible choices? A few minutes? Now you have to buy something that costs $50 (20 times more) - say, an MP3 player. How much time do you spend researching these possible choices? More, right? Of course, you're parting with more money. So you spend 20X more time researching - say, 40 minutes in total. Now a $1000 TV - another 20-fold increase. More research than for an MP3 player?...

Madoff Victims Still Demanding That Taxpayers Reimburse Them For Fake Returns Yael BizouatiSep. 24, 2009, 5:15 PMMadoff’s victims will finally get their day in court Feb. 2. The victims have been fighting with Irving Picard, the bankruptcy trustee, about the right way to determine their losses. Now a judge will decide. The victims say their losses should be measured by the fictitious amount they thought they had in their accounts when the Ponzi scheme collapsed.[snip]

THERE'S one thing more shocking than the illegal- alien smuggling advice that an ACORN official in San Diego gave undercover journalists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles: It's the illegal-alien home-loan racket that ACORN has been operating with the full knowledge of the US government. On Wednesday, O'Keefe and Giles published the fifth in a series of BigGovernment.com sting videos. In it, ACORN official Juan Carlos Vera coached the pimp-and-prostitute-posing pair on how best to pull off a border-busting smuggling operation. It would be "better from Tijuana," Vera counseled. He then generously offered the investigative couple his Mexican "contacts" to bring...

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's metamorpho sis is complete: Goodbye, House moderate; hello, leftist Senate radical. In Monday's Senate vote to strip federal grants from ACORN, Gillibrand was one of just seven members to back continued funding. She even broke with her New York patron, Chuck Schumer. Yes, Gillibrand said certain ACORN employees' actions were "reprehensible" and called for "a full investigation." But, the rookie senator, tapped by a clueless Gov. Paterson, nonetheless insisted that "thousands of New York families who are facing foreclosure depend on charitable organizations like ACORN for assistance." Yeah, we know -- and Mussolini made the trains run...

WASHINGTON -- This is your money at work. At work in the red-light district. And your government is the pimp who handles your "investment." Over the last six years, more than $10 million of your hard-earned money has been taken by the federal government and handed to ACORN, which we now know is ready and eager to use your money to finance whorehouses. What could possibly be more fitting? These tapes from inside ACORN offices in Washington, Baltimore and now Brooklyn make your skin crawl.

The Economic Club of Southwest Michigan is using Sarah Palin's name to promote an event to which it hasn't yet even invited her to attend. But what can we expect from an outfit that considers left-wing columnist Tom Friedman to be a "world-renown leader"?  From The Herald-Palladium: In announcing its 2009-10 speakers lineup Friday, the club offered the teaser that former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin might speak to the club. Palin, who recently resigned as Alaska's governor, has not begun accepting speaking invitations. But when she does the club will invite her, said Club President Michael Cook. If she...