GW, Sesno launch 'Face the Facts' project

There’s a new myth-buster on the block.
A group of journalists, researchers and former public officials have founded a new nonprofit project at the George Washington University aimed at influencing the terms of debate in the 2012 campaign. The group, Face the Facts USA, will put out a series of policy briefings on 10 core subjects in the presidential race.
Frank Sesno, the GW professor and former CNN Washington bureau chief heading up the project, said the goal is to create “a little moment of true North” in a noisy, messy election. That won’t come in the form of hour-to-hour truth-squadding, but rather through one research presentation each day.
“We’re not Politifact. We’re not FactCheck. We’re not running after the candidates and saying, ‘You’re right on this, you’re wrong on this, liar, liar, pants on fire,'” Sesno said. “What we hope to do is to be able to create a fact-driven conversation, using infographics, video and a very deliberate design, both editorially and visually, and create a fact-a-day diet that can illuminate the debate.”
Housed at GW, Sesno’s project is backed by software mogul Edward W. Scott, the co-founder of BEA Systems, who will chair the Face the Facts USA advisory board. The project plans to work with a range of web and media partners, including Google, YouTube, the Huffington Post, NewsMax and others, to disseminate material.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/07/gw-sesno-launch-face-the-facts-project-130417.html?hp=l8

Sandy Weill’s About-Face on Glass-Steagall

Isn’t it something how a former Wall Street baron named as one of Time magazine’s “25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis” suddenly becomes a paragon of wisdom in the eyes of the media elites as soon as he advocates something they favor?

That’s essentially what happened to former Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill, who championed repeal of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall banking restrictions in 1999, oversaw a firm that made bad mortgage bets in the following decade that almost caused the firm to implode, and now says he changed his mind and wants a restoration of the New Deal legislation separating commercial banking from investment banking and insurance.
Weill is being congratulated by politicos and pundits for at last seeing the “error” of his ways. An alternative explanation for his about-face is that he is fashionably blaming “deregulation” for his own gross errors in running Citi. Whatever the reason, Weill’s change of heart doesn’t change the facts: The mortgages Citi made were not at all enabled by Glass-Steagall’s repeal, but by the subsidies and guarantees of government entities such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and — in Citi’s case in particular — the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

Read more: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/312578/sandy-weill-s-about-face-glass-steagall-john-berlau

China Zeros in on Canadian Oil, but It's Not About Sovereignty

China’s $15.1 billion bid to acquire Canada’s Nexen oil company threatens to turn China into a owner rather just a major buyer of Canadian oil, and prompts a surge in nationalist rhetoric that is attempting, misguidedly, to bring up the question of sovereignty.

China knows that nationalism and ideology will play a major role in whether the Nexen purchase goes through. As such, China’s CNOOC is offering Canada a very attractive deal, to wit, a 61% all-cash premium for Nexen.

For the same reason, CNOOC is offering to establish a headquarters in Nexen’s administrative territory, Calgary, Alberta, as well as to retain the Nexen management, among other things designed to make the deal innocuous. CNOOC has also been treading slowly and cautiously, first testing the waters by purchasing Nexen oil sands.

It’s not the first time a Chinese acquisition has stirred up the nationalist sentiments in North America. In 2005, CNOOC bid to acquire California-based Unocal, causing a furor in Washington and talk about national security. The acquisition would have made sense for China, as Unocal’s resources are largely in Asia. But of course nationalism and ideology tend to trump common sense, so it was a no go for the “communists”. Instead, Chevron acquired Unocal.

But let’s not talk “sovereignty” here. A paltry 28% of Nexen’s assets are in Canada. Most of the company’s assets are in the North Sea, the West African coast and the Gulf of Mexico. Nexen is also a rather small player in Canada in comparison with other Canadian oil majors. And certainly if Canada is willing to sell it off, it can’t be such a significant player in the energy industry.

Read more: http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/China-Zeros-in-on-Canadian-Oil-but-Its-Not-About-Sovereignty.html

Poll: Corruption is no. 2 issue for 2013

Americans view reducing government corruption as the second-highest priority for the next president, behind only job creation, according to a new Gallup poll released Monday.
Eighty-seven percent of respondents said that reducing corruption in the federal government is an “extremely important” or “very important” priority for the next president, compared to 92 percent who said the same about creating good jobs.

Notably, corruption ranks ahead of issues such as reducing the federal budget deficit (86 percent), dealing with terrorism (86 percent) and continuing Social Security and Medicare (85 percent).

Gallup notes that corruption ranks highly when respondents are asked specifically about it, but isn’t as “top-of-mind” when respondents are asked to volunteer priorities.
Obama supporters and Romney supporters have slightly different priorities when it comes to the next presidential term.
While health care remains the top priority for Obama supporters, with 50 percent characterizing it as “extremely important,” 51 percent of Romney supporters prioritize reducing the federal budget deficit.
For both camps, however, 48 percent view job creation as “extremely important” for the next presidential term, making it the second-most important issue.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/79109.html#ixzz226Hl06qy

Fraud and Biodiesel Credits

Rodney Hailey started Clean Green Fuel in March 2009 to sell biodiesel credits to companies trying to meet their quotas for renewable-fuel production. Situated within a market that is required by law to expand ever year, Hailey’s company seemed poised to prosper. And it did, at least on paper, selling 32.2 million credits worth $9 million. Translated, that means that Clean Green Fuel was under agreement to produce about 21.4 million gallons of biodiesel.

On June 25, federal courts convicted Hailey of fraud, the first such case associated with the sale of RINs, or renewable identification numbers. It appears that, after founding Clean Green Fuel, he rented a garage and bought pipes and blending equipment. But the one-man, one-shed operation never blended any biomass-based biofuel. His pipes were connected to nothing. Hailey now faces up to 484 years in prison.

RINs were created by the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, which mandated that companies that refine, import, or blend fossil fuels (the “obligated parties,” in the bill’s legalese) blend a certain, annually increasing amount of biomass-based diesel from 2008 to 2022. RINs are a way of tracking how much biodiesel these companies create. One gallon of corn-starch ethanol is worth one RIN; of agri-biodiesel, 1.5 RINs; and of cellulose ethanol, 2.5 RINs.

Read more: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/312581/fraud-and-biodiesel-credits-nash-keune

Trade Union Boss Says Green Jobs Are Bull****

Another undercover operation by Project Veritas, which is led by investigative video specialist James O'Keefe, has revealed what labor unions truly believe about the billions of dollars that go toward the alleged "greening" of our energy usage. They're "bull****"

Those were the words that came out of the mouth of John Hutchings, a legislator for New York's Broome County, who is also a construction market representative for the Laborers International Union for upstate New York. He is also an executive officer of the Central New York Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, according to his bio.

Project Veritas actors, who portrayed leaders of a make-believe company called Earth Supply and Renewal, captured the remark in a meeting they obtained with Hutchings and other union leaders to discuss the possibility (again, this was an act) of winning government grants or contracts for their work. The only problem was that Earth Supply and Renewal sold themselves as in the business of carrying out only a very simple task: digging holes, and filling them back in.

"And you guys would be cool with that?" asked a Veritas actor of the union leaders. "With helping us find funds, even if it's just - what we do is just, 'Hey, there's some dirt to dig,' and put it back in the hole?"

Hutchings's colleague Anthony Tocci, business manager for Laborers International Union-Local 161 on Long Island, replied, "If people are willing to give you the money, that's fine."

Then Hutchings chimed in.

"You know the Green Jobs, Green New York?" he told the actors, referring to a $112-million state weatherization program. "Between us, a lot of it is bullsh--.

Read more: http://thegwpf.org/international-news/6270-trade-union-boss-says-green-jobs-are-bull.html

Politicizing Voting Rights Act dims luster

The fundamental goals and bipartisan legacy of the Voting Rights Act are imperiled by Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department and the administration he serves.
The beleaguered attorney general recently asserted that common-sense efforts to ensure the identity and citizenship of voters represent a modern “poll tax” — inconsistent with the Voting Rights Act.

The Voting Rights Act was signed into law in 1965. Historic in nature, the civil rights law sought to end decades of racial discrimination that prevented minorities from fully exercising their constitutional right to vote.

In 1982, I helped lead negotiations to reauthorize it. The House passed the reauthorization 389-24, and President Ronald Reagan signed it. In July 2005, I stood before the NAACP’s national convention in Milwaukee and announced my intention as chairman of the Judiciary Committee to introduce and move legislation reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act for an additional 25 years.
A year later, the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 passed the House 390-33; it cleared the Senate 98-0, and President George W. Bush signed it into law in a rare moment of historic bipartisan unity.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/79090.html#ixzz226GfEgMN