Fausta’s Blog

My favorite couple of the three are Matteo Panero and Patricia Hillliges (she’s wearing the pink dress). More of them here.

Ah, the irony, Blizzard Dumps Snow on Copenhagen as Leaders Battle Warming, or do they mean, struggle to stay warm?

World leaders flying into Copenhagen today to discuss a solution to global warming will first face freezing weather as a blizzard dumped 10 centimeters (4 inches) of snow on the Danish capital overnight.

“Temperatures will stay low at least the next three days,” Henning Gisseloe, an official at Denmark’s Meteorological Institute, said today by telephone, forecasting more snow in coming days. “There’s a good chance of a white Christmas.”

Apparently they haven’t had a white Christmas in 14 years. Nice.

Not so nice, the reaction to Chavez’s speech: The Copenhagen, Chavista Consensus: Free Markets Kill Polar Bears

As Ron Bailey pointed out in his latest dispatch from the Copenhagen climate change conference, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave a predictably insane speech blaming capitalism for the melting if the polar ice caps and all sorts of other environmental degradation. Of course, he likely remembers that the Soviet Union and its slave states were all terrific stewards of the earth, using green technology to eliminate the kulaks and giving Andrei Sakharov fair trade chicory coffee in prison.

I am not a scientist, don’t pretend to be a scientist, and defer to Bailey on all things science related, but am I allowed to be more than slightly troubled that those formulating policy on such matters appear to be barking mad?

Oh yes, indeed. So many despots, so little time!

Be that as it may — and even though there is still a lot of bickering over the hand-outs … er, budget — this city is about to be descended upon by some 115 world leaders. One of them, Hugo Chavez, is already here, evidently to great acclaim. I missed his speech yesterday (somehow I’m not on the invite list), but I will take one for the team today and go hear Chavez speak off campus at a place called Valby Hallen. He won’t be alone. Accompanying him on the program are Raul Castro, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Eva Morales of Bolivia, the Foreign Minister of Ecuador and the recently deposed president of Honduras Manuel Zelaya. (Wasn’t he supposed to be in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa?) Anyway, it’s a veritable rogue’s gallery of the Latin American left.

I really want to know how Zelaya managed to get out of the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, but I digress.

European Carbon Credit Trading System Plagued by Fraud, which may explain the appeal from the tyrants: it is yet more root-cause corruption.

Meanwhile, the Russians are piping in, with yet another inconvenient truth,
Climategate goes SERIAL: now the Russians confirm that UK climate scientists manipulated data to exaggerate global warming

What the Russians are suggesting here, in other words, is that the entire global temperature record used by the IPCC to inform world government policy is a crock.

But fret not, The Obama administration is making a last-gasp effort to put together a deal in Copenhagen, with Hillary promising $100 million billion right off the bat. As if it wasn’t a big enough zoo, Nancy Pelosi is leading a large delegation on at least two Air Force jets to Copenhagen.

Can’t wait to find out what Lady M will be wearing to the blizzard…

UPDATE
Lord Monckton reports on Pachauri’s eye opening Copenhagen presentation, and manages to slice, dice, chop and fillet Pachauri’s list of errors. More on Pachauri at EU Referendum.

And,
Chavez-hagen!

Post re-edited to include an omission.

In today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern,
Joining the developed countries, In Chile, many are optimistic that prosperity is coming

This week, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a club of rich nations that includes the United States, Japan and several European countries, formally invited Chile to join. Becoming the first South American nation in the 30-member group would be among the tangible signs of Chile’s steady rise since the 1980s, when it was in the grip of dictatorship.

“It’s a recognition of all the good things we’ve done,” Andrés Velasco, Chile’s finance minister, said in an interview last week.

Such a transition from developing to developed country last happened more than a generation ago — think Ireland and South Korea. No one is exactly sure of the timing for Chile. But economists say this country of 17 million will become the first Latin American country to switch categories sometime in the next decade.
…
Chile has posted Latin America’s fastest economic growth over a generation, and poverty has dropped from 45 percent before the demise of Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s government to a regional low of 14 percent today. But Giugale and other economists say Chile has advanced in areas more difficult to measure, such as strengthening state institutions like the courts and fighting corruption.

Chile also has a stable and robust democracy, ruled since 1990 by a coalition of Socialists and Christian Democrats that unseated Pinochet. The current president, Michelle Bachelet, has a popularity rate hovering at nearly 80 percent.

And though polls show that a conservative opposition businessman, Sebastian Piñera, may win the presidency in a January election, no one expects an overhaul of Chile’s economic system. Piñera, who won a first round of voting Sunday over the ruling coalition candidate, Eduardo Frei, has said he would not reduce government or roll back an extensive social safety net.

Good news from the region, for the region.

Related reading:
Change Chile Can Believe In
With conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera favored to win the presidency, the South American country is looking forward.

Related posts:
Chile now officially a developed country
Andres Velasco’s plan: Save for a rainy day

… in Iraq and Afghanistan, using Russian software Skygrabber,

Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones
$26 Software Is Used to Breach Key Weapons in Iraq; Iranian Backing Suspected

Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations.

Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes’ systems. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as SkyGrabber — available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet — to regularly capture drone video feeds, according to a person familiar with reports on the matter.

Iraq, Afghanistan, but possibly also Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia

Some of the most detailed evidence of intercepted feeds has been discovered in Iraq, but adversaries have also intercepted drone video feeds in Afghanistan, according to people briefed on the matter. These intercept techniques could be employed in other locations where the U.S. is using pilotless planes, such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, they said.

Drones are inherently vulnerable:

Gen. Deptula, speaking to reporters Wednesday, said there were inherent risks to using drones since they are remotely controlled and need to send and receive video and other data over great distances. “Those kinds of things are subject to listening and exploitation,” he said, adding the military was trying to solve the problems by better encrypting the drones’ feeds.

The potential drone vulnerability lies in an unencrypted downlink between the unmanned craft and ground control. The U.S. government has known about the flaw since the U.S. campaign in Bosnia in the 1990s, current and former officials said. But the Pentagon assumed local adversaries wouldn’t know how to exploit it, the officials said.

Why weren’t drone communications encripted in the first place?

Emitting CO2 at the Climate Conference, Chavez,

Vlad Tepes’s post, Hugo Chavez defines hypocrisy in Denmark, takes a walk down memory lane on Chavez’s real stand on democracy and concludes,

Examples of Hugo Chavez sheer venomous contempt for democracy, for inclusivness are legion. Well worth a subscription to Stratfor.com if you want the newest on this clown. I’ll post one or two examples of Hugo Chavez and his ‘Bolivarian revolution’ and it’s relationship to the Jewish people in Venezuela as examples of how inclusive he really is. But the straight facts are that his actions at home and in power are in direct opposition to his words at Copenhagen and for that matter in general.

One’s husband fu****g around with 2 dozen women or so would make one get a divorce, for sure.

Elin Nordegren to Divorce Tiger Woods

For the holidays, the Daily News adds, Elin and her two young sons children will be in Sweden with her family. Tiger, in turn, will be licking his wounds here in the U.S. with “the boys.”

Yeah, right, “the boys”.

(Special thanks to the friend who sent the link)

Of all the harebrained ideas to come out of the mouth of Michael Moore, this one is special:
Boycott Connecticut.

Whah??

What’s even better is Moore has an article at his own website, a repost of a Politico article, featuring a Connecticut state legislator calling for Lieberman’s ouster. The article, on Moore’s own website, points out that recall is not possible under the constitution.

Can’t bother Michael Moore with the facts, can you?

The Scots freed him and Gedaffi gave him a hero’s welcome.

Now he’s missing.

Yeah, just out of the blue:

Mystery as Lockerbie bomber goes missing from home and hospital

Mystery surrounded the Lockerbie bomber last night after he could not be reached at his home or in hospital.

Libyan officials could say nothing about the whereabouts of Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, and his Scottish monitors could not contact him by telephone. They will try again to speak to him today but if they fail to reach him, the Scottish government could face a new crisis.

Under the terms of his release from jail, the bomber cannot change his address or leave Tripoli, and must keep in regular communication with East Renfrewshire Council.

Megrahi’s given them the raspberry – with the help of the authorities, that is:

Back at al-Megrahi’s home, there was no sign of activity. One of three security officers sitting in a grey Mercedes car outside said: “They’ve all gone.” He refused to elaborate.

I am shocked, shocked, it happened.

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean – a day late due to several work and family related reasons. Thank you for your patience.

LATIN AMERICA
The FARC and the ‘Peace Community’

Dead End America

The Latinobarómetro poll
A slow maturing of democracy: More Latin Americans now trust the government than the army

BOLIVIA
Bolivia’s presidential election
The explosive apex of Evo’s power: A triumphant Evo Morales has won a second term. But the going will not necessarily get any easier for his social revolution

Drug lords finding safe haven in Bolivia

BRAZIL
Muslim numbers soar in Latin America’s Islamic resurgence

CHILE
Elecciones en Chile trasncurren con tranquilidad
Tres horas después de iniciado el proceso, el 98.71% de las mesas receptoras estaban instaladas; eligen al sucesor de la presidenta Michelle Bachelet y un nuevo Congreso

Via Instapundit, Impotent futurism: the design of Allende’s cyber-utopian boondoggle

Free As In Beer: Cybernetic Science Fictions from Greg Borenstein on Vimeo.

CUBA
Via The Corner, Cuba detains contractor for U.S. government
American was handing out mobile phones, laptops to activists

The frog in the pot

ECUADOR
Ecuador: Correa Announces Restructuring Of Central Bank

Ecuador media moves create waves

GUATEMALA
Aunque no renazca de sus cenizas

HONDURAS
Alas, I will *not* be asking how to say in Spanish…

Opinion: On Hondura’s Vote – by Otto Reich

MEXICO
Cartels stealing Mexican oil

Behold the Conquering Hero

PANAMA
Nice-looking eggplants

PARAGUAY
Paraguay’s president
Loose-lipped Lugo: Giving offence and receiving it

VENEZUELA
Banking in Venezuela
Fall of the Boligarchs: Hugo Chávez cracks down on allies

Ahmadinejad, Chavez and Mugabe Will Speak at UN Junk Science Summit

Venezuela: Bank Nationalizations

Purga política detrás de ofensiva contra banqueros

Venezuela: Agents Raid Brokerage Firm

Police commit 20 percent of Venezuela crimes—minister

Venezuelan government takes over farms

Cooling Hugo Chavez

DIALÉCTICA DE LA GUERRA CIVIL (claves para evitarla…)

The week’s posts and podcasts:
The Tehran-Caracas Nuclear Axis
The Venezuelan banks takeover: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Curly, Larry and Moe at Copenhagen Climate Talks next week
Orquesta Kef: Entry denied
Blogburst/blogacción: Free Darsi Ferrer NOW!
Honduras: Zelaya may be heading to Mexico? UPDATE: Nope.
Venezuela’s new Continental Bolivarian Movement: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Venezuela: “Thousands of Russian missiles” coming
The Panama Canal expands: 15 Minutes on Latin America

I’ve had the pleasure and the honor of meeting both Gay Patriot, Bruce, and Gay Patriot West, Dan, of Gay Patriot, one of the best blogs around which I visit daily, so it’s a real honor to have been nominated for 2010 Grande Conservative Blogress Diva.

Please check out their list, and Vote For Me!!

Thank you.