Informers And Collaborators

Some of the countries that were formerly under the Iron Curtain have released at least some of the archives of the former state security forces that once enforced communist rule. A few have kept the files secret. Poland, however, has gone into full disclosure mode and has started posting their files onto the internet.

WARSAW (AFP) - Nearly two decades after the fall of communism, Europe's former Moscow-dominated states are using the Internet to make public the files of the security services that helped keep their regimes in power.

In the latest step, the body in charge of Poland's communist-era secret police files began Tuesday posting documents related to top officials, including the President Lech Kaczynski and his identical twin Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

The material on the special site of National Remembrance Institute (IPN) — http://katalog.bip.ipn.gov.pl/ — was hardly shocking, and simply confirmed that both Kaczynskis were spied on and harassed by the Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa police because of their anti-communist activities in the 1970s and 1980s.

But the possibility of peeking into the SB archives — which cover people who were spies, victims, or both — was such a draw for Poles that users swamped the IPN's site.

The IPN started posting the files of the Kaczynskis and other officials such as the speakers of the lower and upper houses of parliament, top prosecutors, and the judges of the constitutional tribunal and supreme court, under new legislation which came into force earlier this year.

The Kaczynskis, who came to power in 2005, have made coming to terms with the communist past a major plank of their policy and pushed to vastly increase the number of people affected by come-clean rules from 30,000 to 700,000.

It is a bit odd when you read about who is - and who is not - releasing this information. Bulgaria, once one of the most reliable of the Soviet satellites, is requiring the posting of all names of people who worked with their secret police. But Germany has never released the East German files and has no plans to do so.

This should be a reminder that eventually the truth comes out. People might want to remember that. Sometimes payback is swift and final, sometimes a bit late in coming. But it is there in the end.

Dumb Media

I hate posting about stuff like this, it just gives it more exposure. But at the same time, I think the frank stupidity of the media has got to be exposed. They have been giving helpful hints to terrorists for ages, but I think it is actually getting worse in recent years. So now the Associated Press makes sure that if terrorists did not already know that there were vulnerabilities in the US, that they know now.

WASHINGTON - A government video shows the potential destruction caused by hackers seizing control of a crucial part of the U.S. electrical grid: an industrial turbine spinning wildly out of control until it becomes a smoking hulk and power shuts down.

The video, produced for the Homeland Security Department and obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday, was marked "Official Use Only." It shows commands quietly triggered by simulated hackers having such a violent reaction that the enormous turbine shudders as pieces fly apart and it belches black-and-white smoke.

The video was produced for top U.S. policy makers by the Idaho National Laboratory, which has studied the little-understood risks to the specialized electronic equipment that operates power, water and chemical plants. Vice President Dick Cheney is among those who have watched the video, said one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because this official was not authorized to publicly discuss such high-level briefings.

"They've taken a theoretical attack and they've shown in a very demonstrable way the impact you can have using cyber means and cyber techniques against this type of infrastructure," said Amit Yoran, former U.S. cybersecurity chief for the Bush administration. Yoran is chief executive for NetWitness Corp., which sells sophisticated network monitoring software.

"It's so graphic," Yoran said. "Talking about bits and bytes doesn't have the same impact as seeing something catch fire."

The electrical attack never actually happened. The recorded demonstration, called the "Aurora Generator Test," was conducted in March by government researchers investigating a dangerous vulnerability in computers at U.S. utility companies known as supervisory control and data acquisition systems. The programming flaw was quietly fixed, and equipment-makers urged utilities to take protective measures.

I have no doubt, having been in the utility field for a long time, that a lot of the SCADA systems were never designed for today's world. A lot of them predate the internet for heaven's sake. But the AP is not doing this country any favors by broadcasting it. Most of the manufacturers of these systems are pretty fast to get fixes out if they identify a problem. Hopefully the AP will stop helping people who we should not be soon. Before their lights go out.

I'm not counting on it, however.

Burma: Raiding The Monasteries

The military junta that rules Burma has commenced a series of raids on the Buddhist monasteries that have been the focal points of the demonstrations against the thuggish, Chinese-backed regime. Hundreds of monks have been arrested.

At least 200 monks were detained in pre-dawn raids on two monasteries in Yangon, the main city Yangon, a day after tens of thousands of protesters defied warning shots, tear gas and baton charges meant to quell the demonstrations.

Troops also swooped on at least two monasteries in northeastern Myanmar, where large anti-government protests have been held in the past week.

Up to 500 monks were arrested at the Mogaung monastery in Yankin Township and another 150 detained at the Ngwe Kyaryan monastery in South Okkalapa Township, witnesses said.

Agam has a lot of pictures and a more local perspective (he's in Thailand) about yesterday's crackdown in Rangoon. Nothing up about the newest raids yet, however.

British National Health Vermin Service

The British National Health Service (NHS) unveiled its newest facility. A maternity ward exclusively for cockroaches.

An NHS maternity unit has been forced to close after cockroaches were seen in the wards.

Mothers have been put in temporary beds while the unit is fumigated and deep-cleaned.

Health bosses had to call in pestcontrol experts at Rochdale Royal Infirmary.

Cockroaches carry harmful bacteria and can spread diseases such as salmonella, polio and gastroenteritis.

Patients and nurses saw the insects scuttling around the ward last Thursday. The unit was closed but is expected to re-open today.

The mother of one of the women affected - who gave birth by Caesarean this week - has said patients were stunned by the discovery.

She said new mothers were having to put up with cramped conditions in children's wards and another hospital because of the infestation.

The ward has been closed since last Thursday. They say they are making progress and will have the ward re-opened soon. But lest you think this is an aberration:

Last month a national survey of NHS hospital kitchens revealed that almost half failed to meet basic hygiene standards and some had regular infestations of cockroaches.

The details, released under a Freedom of Information request made by the Liberal Democrats, flagged up poor personal hygiene among staff in 57 of the 377 hospitals surveyed, with 11 cases of vermin and other pests.

Almost half of the hospital kitchens failed to meet even basic standards. This is the socialized medicine touted by Michael Moore as the panacea that America needs. So, hop on the socialized medicine bandwagon. This is exactly where the wagon goes.

Still think socialized medicine is the way to go? Really?

Sister Toldjah Held Hostage

A tense standoff has developed at Castle Toldjah.

Tonight, when I tried to be brave and actually opened the back door, he started walking towards me. And I don’t think he wanted to be my friend. I froze for a second and then collected my wits and ran back inside.

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard are very concerned since we know full well what the thugs that are outside her door are capable of. Of course, her situation could be much, much worse, we suppose. Here at the Crabitat we have a number of these running around.

UPDATE: WHAT were we thinking??? All we have to do is call in the Goat Justice League to free her! (Thanks for the link back, ST.)

When Life Imitates National Lampoon

You know it is a sign of the pending end of civilization. A group of "activists" has started a new website to try to get people to adopt abandoned dogs.

New Web site: Adopt this dog or he will die

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new Web site is seeking to tug more forcefully on the heart strings of people who might adopt abandoned dogs by publicizing how much time is left before an animal is killed if a home has not been found.

The activists behind dogsindanger.com believe theirs is the first Web site to take the approach. They hope that highlighting the fact many unadopted dogs are euthanized by shelters with scarce space will spur people to take them in.

"This is happening … in our country, in our back yard," said Alex Aliksanyan of The Buddy Fund, the group behind the site. "It's been kept underneath a blanket of niceness and sweetness. So we said, 'Lets put the truth in front of the consumer — either do something about it, or at least realize you're a partner."'

The site will also feature a memorial with names, photos and dates that euthanized dogs died.

Oh, not that they don't mean well, I suppose. But this was done in 1973 - before the days of the interwebby, of course. It was National Lampoon's "Death" issue. It featured a picture of a dog on the cover. A man's hand holding a revolver to the dog's head and the words, "If you don't buy this magazine, we'll kill this dog."

Reptiles March On Long Island

The Animal Uprising™ has unleashed a reptile invasion of Long Island. The Local SPCA has been diligently collecting and has collected 112 so far this year. But the alligators are beginning to wear them down. Especially the ones walking along the roads.

WADING RIVER, N.Y. - A 3 1/2-foot alligator has been captured walking along a Long Island roadway. Chief Roy Gross of the Suffolk County SPCA said the reptile was found by two people who were walking alongside a grassy area of Route 25A in Wading River on Sunday afternoon.

A crew from the SPCA picked up the alligator, who had some front teeth missing, but Gross said it was still capable of inflicting serious injury to humans and death to small animals and pets.

The alligator, estimated to be between 3 and 4 years old, was found in a rural area of eastern Long Island, and Gross suspects it may have been dumped there by someone who could no longer care for it.

"These animals are extremely dangerous and now they're being abandoned on the side of the road where people walk and cycle….."

That's not quite right, of course. The animal overlords are sending them intentionally. We strongly advise residents of Wading River to exercise extreme caution while walking, but especially when jogging or biking. Alligators really like fast food.

Monster Makeover

Mikhail Gorbachev is sounding a warning for people who are smart enough to heed him. There is a real danger of a return of Stalinism in Russia - and the world.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev warned Russians on Wednesday of the risk of a rebirth of Stalinism, saying their country was in danger of forgetting its tragic past.

"We should remember those who suffered, because this a lesson for all of us," Gorbachev told a conference marking 70 years since the start of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's Great Terror.

"We must squeeze Stalinism out of ourselves, not in single drops but by the glass or bucket," Gorbachev added. "There are those saying Stalin's rule was the Golden Age, while (Nikita) Khrushchev's thaw was sheer utopia and (Leonid) Brezhnev's neo-Stalinism was the continuation of the Golden Age."

During the Great Terror, 1.7 million Soviet citizens were arrested between August 1937 and November 1938, of whom 818,000 were executed, the human rights group Memorial said.

Historians estimate that up to 13 million people were killed or sent to labor camps in the former Soviet Union between 1921 and 1953, the year Stalin died.

Despite Stalin's record, recent polls have shown many young Russians have a positive view of the former Soviet leader and there have been attempts this year to play down his excesses, which have found an echo among the country's youth.

Fifty-four percent of Russian youth believe that Stalin did more good than bad and half said he was a wise leader, according to a poll conducted in July by the Yuri Levada Centre.

There are still apologists for Stalin in the west, too. About every American university faculty is full of them. This is a real danger, not just in Russia, either. Chavez is trying to build a Stalinist cult of personality in Venezuela. The western media is full of neo-Duranty types. And useful idiots abound. There are those willing to do a makeover on a monster.

Pay Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain

It really should not come as a surprise that a lot of "spontaneous" events recently have really be very well-funded and highly choreographed political theater. For people who have been paying attention, it should also not be surprising who the man behind the curtain pulling the levers is, either. Investor's Business Daily has an editorial on George Soros.

Democracy: George Soros is known for funding groups such as MoveOn.org that seek to manipulate public opinion. So why is the billionaire's backing of what he believes in problematic? In a word: transparency.

How many people, for instance, know that James Hansen, a man billed as a lonely "NASA whistleblower" standing up to the mighty U.S. government, was really funded by Soros' Open Society Institute , which gave him "legal and media advice"?

That's right, Hansen was packaged for the media by Soros' flagship "philanthropy," by as much as $720,000, most likely under the OSI's "politicization of science" program.

That may have meant that Hansen had media flacks help him get on the evening news to push his agenda and lawyers pressuring officials to let him spout his supposedly "censored" spiel for weeks in the name of advancing the global warming agenda.

Hansen even succeeded, with public pressure from his nightly news performances, in forcing NASA to change its media policies to his advantage. Had Hansen's OSI-funding been known, the public might have viewed the whole production differently. The outcome could have been different.

That's not the only case. Didn't the mainstream media report that 2006's vast immigration rallies across the country began as a spontaneous uprising of 2 million angry Mexican-flag waving illegal immigrants demanding U.S. citizenship in Los Angeles, egged on only by a local Spanish-language radio announcer?

Turns out that wasn't what happened, either. Soros' OSI had money-muscle there, too, through its $17 million Justice Fund. The fund lists 19 projects in 2006. One was vaguely described involvement in the immigration rallies. Another project funded illegal immigrant activist groups for subsequent court cases.

So what looked like a wildfire grassroots movement really was a manipulation from OSI's glassy Manhattan offices. The public had no way of knowing until the release of OSI's 2006 annual report.

There is more - you really need to read it all, it is that important. So how much effect has this all had? The Anchoress has looked at that:

Once upon a time you could say, “who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes,” with a wry smirk and appreciate the irony. It’s not so ironic, anymore. Now we are in the third act of Hamlet, the King - his conscience pricked - is crying out and the castle is in uproar and Hamlet declares, “believe none of this,” which is good advice. Maybe all of history has been a staged production, but I don’t believe that. Sadly in American politics, circa 2007, very little is real, very few are motivated by selfless love of country, and illusionists are everywhere.

Whoever can manipulate the images, whoever can best misdirect your attention, whoever can mesmerize you with their illusions…that is who will win this election, because too many of us buy into everything we see and hear. Unless we stop falling for it all - for the large-scale productions and the small sound bites. How do we do that? I can only hazard a guess, myself:

Remember that half of what you see is an illusion and the rest of what you see is a passing fashion, and you’ll fret a good deal less, no matter what the issue.

Perhaps the other half of that good advice is to watch less news and television, read fewer papers, spend less time on political forums feeding your rage and paranoia and spend some time - every single day - being quiet and contemplative. I think that’s the only way to counter all of this frenetic noise that leaves you neither time nor room to think and which completely cuts you off from your guts and your instincts. Your guts are there for a reason. Don’t stop using them.

Remember, even the internet - particularly the political forums - contribute to the illusions:

Pay attention to the man behind the curtain. Pay attention.

Sinking The Armada

British equality chief Trevor Phillips is starting a campaign to rewrite the nation's history books to be more "inclusive" of other cultures. His first target is the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. According to Phillips, it was actually people who were not there who managed to defeat the Armada. All those British vessels involved? Meaningless. They could have stayed home.

"When we talk about the Armada, it is only now that we are beginning to realise that part of it is Muslims - actually it was the Turks who saved us because they held the Armada for a few weeks, on the request of Elizabeth I," he told a Labour conference fringe event.

"Let's rewrite that story, let's use our heritage to rewrite that story so that it is truly inclusive.

"That's the reason for this: So that we have an identity which brings us together and binds us in the stormy times we're going to have."

The head of the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights said it is not about rewriting what we are, "but sometimes we have to go back into the tapestry and insert some threads that were lost. We may need to revisit some parts of our heritage so we rewrite it to tell the whole story".

But experts said inflating the importance of minor or irrelevant events in the interests of race relations is confusing to children……

…..Mr Phillips's view appears to be based on the work of historian Jerry Brotton. He argues that the Armada had been weakened before it even set sail because the Spanish had been forced to keep some ships in the Mediterranean to deal with the troublesome Turkish navy.

But Dr Simon Adams, co-author of England, Spain and the Grand Armada, said the Ottomans were not threatening Spain in the Mediterranean.

Well, we here at Blue Crab Boulevard do not plan to stand idly by while the British press attacks Phillips for his completely made up history. We asked our experts from the Ersatz Historical and Completely Mythological Institute of Faux Facts (EHCMIFF) for their interpretation of the history of the Spanish Armada.

They state that they have unequivocal proof that the Spanish Armada was actually defeated by a force of mermaids from Atlantis who took a shine to the Duke of Medina Sidona (who bore a striking resemblance to Ricky Martin). As they inform us, the mermaids plotted to kidnap the Duke because he was so cute. However, the mermaids kept pulling the wrong ships under the water with their giant squids and the Duke escaped.

Hey, at least its more entertaining than Phillips' version. 

Backlash

Some conservative bloggers were quite happy when Lee Bollinger, Dean of Columbia University, denounced Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday. They thought they owed Bollinger an apology. While I thought Bollinger did a good job of telling Ahmadinejad what he really is, I still maintain that it was a bad idea to invite him at all. Here's another reason why: Bollinger is being denounced by faculty and students for being "rude" to the Iranian president.

A backlash against the president of Columbia University, Lee Bollinger, who on Monday delivered a harsh rebuke to President Ahmadinejad, is coming from faculty members and students who said he struck an "insulting tone" and that his remarks amounted to "schoolyard taunts." The fierceness of Mr. Bollinger's critique bought the Iranian some sympathy on campus that he didn't deserve, the critics said, and amounted to a squandered opportunity to provide a lesson in diplomacy.

Mr. Bollinger opened a two-hour program during which the Iranian president spoke and answered questions at the Roone Arledge Auditorium in Morningside Heights by calling Mr. Ahmadinejad a "petty and cruel dictator." He chastised the Iranian for calling for the destruction of Israel, funding terrorism, persecuting scholars, women, and homosexuals, denying the Holocaust, and for fighting a proxy war against America within the borders of Iraq. Mr. Bollinger also tauntingly predicted that the Iranian would lack the "intellectual courage" to offer real answers to questions from the audience.

"It's odd to invite someone and then deal with the objections to inviting him by insulting him before he gets to talk," a professor of political science at Columbia, Richard Betts, said during an interview in his office yesterday. "He's having it both ways in a sense, honoring the principle of free speech by not choosing speakers on the basis of how nice they are, but being sharp to him before he speaks."

Mr. Betts said a more appropriate introduction would have been to make clear that an invitation to speak at Columbia did not qualify as approval of the content of the speech. He said the message should have been delivered as a "less in-your-face assault."

Keep in mind that many of the people screeching about this found Stephen Colbert's verbal assault on President Bush funny, funny stuff. Many are likely regular viewers of the repulsive Keith Olberman and his deranged rants about Bush. They are more than willing to be very, very tolerant of a man who represents a regime that hangs gays (so efficiently that there may be no more gays in Iran, according to Ahmadinejad). They believe in being polite to him even though women are stoned to death in Iran. Or hanged for killing a man who raped her. They're all about being polite to the worst people on earth and as rude as possible to American leaders.

The left has never found a repulsive, murderous dictator they could not snuggle up to. Or an American president they could not savage. This is just another reason this was a really bad idea. (There are many more.)

Keep in mind that many of the people screeching about this found Stephen Colbert's verbal assault on President Bush funny, funny stuff. Many are likely regular viewers of the repulsive Keith Olberman and his deranged rants about Bush. They are more than willing to be very, very tolerant of a man who represents a regime that hangs gays (so efficiently that there may be no more gays in Iran, according to Ahmadinejad). They believe in being polite to him even though women are stoned to death in Iran. Or hanged for killing a man who raped her. They're all about being polite to the worst people on earth and as rude as possible to American leaders.

The left has never found a repulsive, murderous dictator they could not snuggle up to. Or an American president they could not savage. This is just another reason this was a really bad idea. (There are many more.)

Bear Hurling

Austrian soccer fans are petitioning to have their team withdrawn from the Euro 2008 soccer tournament - which is being hosted by Austria. Why? Because the team is an embarrassment.

VIENNA, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Thousands of Austrian soccer fans dismayed at their national side's poor showing ahead of co-hosting Euro 2008 are petitioning for their team to be withdrawn from the tournament.

A group of fans have collected more than 4,000 names on their website since launching the petition last Wednesday.

'This is not about criticising players or coaches,' said Michael Kriess, one of the four fans aged between 33 and 40 who launched the petition.

'We simply say that the way Austria is playing is an insult to our, to every fan's aesthetic understanding of the game.'

Earlier this month, Austria extended their winless run to eight by losing 2-0 to Chile in a home game. The team play co-hosts Switzerland in a friendly on Oct. 13.

As a substitute sport, Austria has introduced Bear Hurling.

Vienna - Moritz, one of the few remaining brown bears in Austria, left visible traces of his existence in Austria's alps, after choosing the wrong kind of dinner. The six-year-old bear who had been sighted repeatedly in a mountainous region in central Austria had gobbled up several portions of a food mix designed for deer, leading to severe indigestion, bear expert Walter Wagner of the country's federal forestries said.

Moritz had thrown up several times, and then took a rest in a hayloft, Wagner's blog said. The hungry bear cracked open feed drums at three locations, eating too much of the muesli-style food mix.

This, of course, proves conclusively something that we here at Blue Crab Boulevard have long suspected. Far from being healthy and good for you, muesli, that mix of oats, nuts, dried fruit, seeds, twigs, bark, insects, dirt and rocks, is actually poisonous.

Burma Burning

The Associated Press is reporting up to five people have been killed in a violent government crackdown on dissidents in Burma. The military junta is apparently going to use as much force as they want to stop protests.

YANGON, Myanmar - Security forces shot and wounded three people, and beat and dragged away dozens of Buddhist monks Wednesday in the most violent crackdown against the protests that began last month, witnesses said. About 300 monks and activists were arrested, dissidents said.

Reports from exiled Myanmar journalists and activists in Thailand said security forces had shot and killed as many as five people in Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon. The reports could not be independently confirmed by The Associated Press.

The U.N. Security Council will meet later Wednesday to discuss Myanmar, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told French reporters.

Witnesses in Yangon known to the AP said they had seen two women and one young man with gunshot wounds in the chaotic confrontations.

Zin Linn, information minister for the Washington-based National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, which is Myanmar's self-styled government-in-exile, said at least five monks were killed, while an organization of exiled political activists in Thailand, the National League for Democracy-Liberated Area said three monks had been confirmed dead, and about 17 wounded.

Exiled Myanmar media reported similar figures, citing witnesses.

A Norway-based dissident radio station, the Democratic Voice of Burma, said that one monk was killed and several injured in clashes in downtown Yangon.

Agam, bogging from Thailand, has video and photos from the crackdown. It looks pretty bad. He's not impressed with the UN response, either:

President Bush told the United Nations General Assembly yesterday that the United States would impose intensified and targeted sanctions against Burma's military rulers, their families and financial backers.

"Americans are outraged by the situation in Burma, where a military junta has imposed a 19-year reign of fear," he told the UN General Assembly.

"The ruling junta remains unyielding, yet the people's desire for freedom is unmistakable."

Unmistakable is right. Yet it seems that the United Nations are not quite united enough to send an unmistakable message to the thugs who oppress 50 million Burmese. The thugs are sending their own unmistakable message as their trucks filled with troops in full battle gear rumble through the streets to take up positions across Rangoon.

It is a very bad day in Burma.

Hillary And Hsu

The Boston Globe provides a pretty solid rundown of the amount of cash Hillary's campaign asked Norman Hsu to funnel to other candidates around the country. It is not as thorough a Flip Pidot's digging, but it is a start - and it is a sign that major media is not letting go of this story.

In at least some cases, Clinton or her aides directly channeled contributions from Hsu and his network to other politicians supportive of her presidential campaign, according to interviews and campaign finance records. There is nothing illegal about one politician steering wealthy contributors to another, but the New York senator's close ties to Hsu have become an embarrassment for her and her campaign.

Last fall, as the Nevada governor's race was heating up, Clinton agreed to help raise money for Democrat Dina Titus, a prominent party leader in a state that holds a key early presidential caucus. Clinton arranged for Hsu, at the time a little-known New York apparel executive with no apparent reason to take interest in Nevada politics, to give Titus $5,000 on Nov. 3, according to a person with knowledge of Clinton's fund-raising.

And in February, when former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack ended his own White House bid, he was about $450,000 in the red. A month after dropping out, Vilsack endorsed Clinton, and Clinton agreed to help him retire his debts. (Both insisted there was no quid pro quo.)

Over the next few months, some of Clinton's biggest fund-raisers gave Vilsack checks, including Hsu, who kicked in the maximum allowable contribution, $2,300, on May 3 after attending an event organized by Clinton's campaign, Newsweek reported this month. An associate of Hsu's, Paul Su, chipped in $1,000 on the same day.

In other cases, Clinton helped direct Hsu's money to influential politicians who have yet to endorse her but hail from key presidential primary states. Clinton raised at least $6,000 from Hsu and his network last year for Governor John Lynch of New Hampshire, according to Lynch aides. Lynch has no plans to endorse anyone before the state's crucial January primary, aides said.

The evidence points pretty strongly toward Hsu being a major figure in Clinton fundraising? Since he also appears to be a major figure in a massive Ponzi scheme, this could be a major problem for Hillary!. As far as I know there is nothing illegal about funneling money to someone you hope to buy get an endorsement from, but if the money is dirty, this could be another backfire for the campaign.

Make-Believe Energy

Mackubin Owens, who teaches national-security affairs at the Naval War College, tries to explain why the Democrat's make-believe energy "solutions" don't actually, you know, work. It is, as always when dealing with people who flat-out do not understand energy or physics, an uphill fight. But he tries to explain why the energy bills in Congress simply do not work in the real world.

The House's measures also raise false hopes by promoting the fiction that "renewable" energy sources such as wind, solar and biofuels can replace oil and gas in an economically viable manner any time soon, mandating that 20 percent of electricity be generated from renewable-energy sources.

The reason such energy sources need subsidies in the first place is that they have intrinsic shortcomings. Energy available from wind and solar is dispersed rather than concentrated - which means that windmill or solar-panel farms must be huge to generate much power. (Even then, clouds and/or lack of wind can slow or stop production, so utilities would need non-fairy-dust backup generators.)

These alternatives are far too expensive and unreliable to compete on the market. By forcing such costly options on the public and subsidizing them via tax breaks and the like, this bill would hit Americans both as ratepayers and taxpayers.

As bad as the House bill on fairy-dust energy sources, the Senate is even worse, mandating a sevenfold increase in biofuels production. To see the problem, consider the most popular biofuel, ethanol.

He discusses what I have pointed out repeatedly, of course: skyrocketing food prices are already happening and will get much worse as more and more food is diverted to fuel production. There will be less and less food for the poorest nations at any price. He does not mention the other real kicker: ethanol produces about 50% more greenhouse gas than the equivalent amount of fossil fuel. And I long ago addressed the issue of wind power.

As Owens points out, the Democrats are pushing fairy tale solutions bathed in the golden glow of soaring rhetoric. Unfortunately the reality is more than a bit grim.