Obama Picking the Losers at the Debate

I wonder where Obama put that booger. Maybe he should have asked Romney for his crib notes.

Obama Grafters Internationalize Solyndra Scam

The United Nations has once again scammed the American people out of our hard earned money. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton committed $20 million from the United States treasury for specious clean energy programs, all in the name of fighting global warming.

The aid money is part of the United States' contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Energy for All initiative, which was launched last year. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon announced during this week's Rio+20 U.N. summit on sustainable development that 50 countries have pledged $50 billion to the effort, which aims to double the share of global renewable energy by 2030.

“This initiative is already mobilizing significant action from all sectors of society,” Ban said at the summit, according to Reuters. “Working together, we can provide solutions that drive economic growth, expand equity and reduce the risks of climate change.”

The $20 million isn’t all that the Obama administration has committed the United States to. They have promised the United Nations $2 billion in the form of loans, grants and loan guarantees in the naïve belief that this will unlock private investment.

The grafters in the Obama administration have internationalized their Solyndra scam. Where is Congress? Did they approve this? Do we still have a Constitution?

Source: http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/foreign-aid/234337-clinton-announces-20-million-clean-energy-program-for-africa

Solyndra Sums Up the Obama Administration

Gas lines helped to define Jimmy Carter’s failed presidency. Green energy is doing the same to Obama. A picture says a thousand words, and the above sums it up.

And let’s make no mistake about who is responsible for Solyndra:




Of course Obama exudes true leadership skills in a crisis:



Can we afford another four years?

Source: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/solyndra-building-sale_640469.html

Democrats Propose Another Windfall Tax on Oil Companies

The Wizard of Oz’s lost munchkin has once again proposed a windfall tax on oil companies. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (understudy to the lead lollipop kid) wants a government sponsored board to monitor gas prices, and determine what constitutes a just profit:

The Democrats, worried about higher gas prices, want to set up a board that would apply a "windfall profit tax" as high as 100 percent on the sale of oil and gas, according to their legislation. The bill provides no specific guidance for how the board would determine what constitutes a reasonable profit.

The Gas Price Spike Act, H.R. 3784, would apply a windfall tax on the sale of oil and gas that ranges from 50 percent to 100 percent on all surplus earnings exceeding "a reasonable profit." It would set up a Reasonable Profits Board made up of three presidential nominees that will serve three-year terms. Unlike other bills setting up advisory boards, the Reasonable Profits Board would not be made up of any nominees from Congress.

I believe citizens in individual states should establish a council to determine a windfall tax on politicians and their beneficiaries who profit from taxpayer largess. Barack Obama and the Democratic Party have profited handsomely from campaign bundlers, who in turn have received federal government guaranteed loans.

Solyndra is a fine example of government sponsored venturism, and the graft known as green energy. The waste involved in this bankruptcy case is a testament to state sponsored coercion.

So why is a bankrupt company that owes a fortune to creditors, including American taxpayers, throwing away millions of dollars worth of assets?

Solyndra is not commenting. But court documents reveal the company received permission from the bankruptcy trustee to abandon the high grade glass, the court agreeing that it was of “inconsequential value” because the cost of storing them exceeds their value.

An employee for Heritage Global Partners, the company in charge of selling Solyndra’s assets, told CBS 5 they conducted an exhaustive search for buyers but no one wanted them.

But how exhaustive was that search? The tubes were never included on the list of Solyndra assets put up for sale at two auctions last year.

If they were, David Lucky told CBS 5 he would have bought them. “We certainly would have bid on them, yes,” Lucky said.

Lucky owns several large warehouses near Las Vegas. He buys and then resells manufacturing equipment and components all the time.

“Our company has bought a lot of stuff over the years. Truck loads and warehouses full of inventory that companies were just ready to send to the dump, because they don’t want to take the time to find markets for it,” he said.

We currently have over a dozen government sponsored green energy companies filing for bankruptcy. You’d think that would’ve been enough for Obama and the Democratic Party; but you would be wrong. They are now doubling down through the Department of Agriculture:

President Obama's Department of Agriculture (USDA) called for applicants to receive the $25.4 million in funding flagged for rural green energy loan guarantees and grants, even as Obama's campaign released an ad defending the Solyndra loan.


"This funding will assist rural farmers, ranchers and business owners to build renewable energy projects, providing opportunities for new technologies, create green jobs and help America become more energy self-sufficient," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said today in a statement.


The $25 million available today comes through the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), and "will support at least $12.5 million in grant and approximately $48.5 million in guaranteed loan program level awards."

Since Barack Obama took office, gas prices have doubled. You’d think that would be a consideration for the implementation of the Keystone XL Pipeline; but apparently, it didn't even raise a blip on the radar. It makes you wonder what kind of an agenda this president has.

Source: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/205085-dems-propose-reasonable-profits-board-to-regulate-oil-company-profits

http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/SC-gas-stations-trying-to-keep-up-with-demand-from-NC-drivers-137702318.html

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/01/19/bankrupt-solyndra-caught-destroying-brand-new-parts/

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/obama-doubles-down-green-energy-loans-again/326166

http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=EMM_EPMR_PTE_NUS_DPG&f=W

Solyndra Employees Get Another Bailout

The Solyndra nightmare isn’t over yet. Now, the American people are getting another kick in the package from their employees.

The Labor Department today announced that it had approved Trade Adjustment Assistance for the former employees of the bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra.

That means all of the firm’s 1,100 ex-employees are eligible for federal aid packages, including job retraining and income assistance. The department has valued packages at about $13,000 a head.

Taxpayers will have to cough up yet another $14.3 million as a result of Solyndra’s bankruptcy. They are already on the hook for $528 million in federal loan guarantees to the company that are unlikely to ever be paid back.

And how does the Obama administration justify paying his most favored company after they screwed the American people out of $528 million in guaranteed loans?

The TAA program offers help to domestic workers who have lost their jobs due to the trade practices of foreign countries. The assistance includes job retraining, allowances for job searching, health benefits and up to 130 weeks of income support. The average recipient gets about $13,000 in assistance

These guys didn’t lose their jobs because of foreign competition. They lost their jobs because a bunch of grafters started a company with a fraudulent business model.

Source: http://blogs.investors.com/capitalhill/index.php/home/35-politicsinvesting/6645-solyndra-staff-get-13000-taa-federal-aid

SunPower Takes the Money and Runs

Another green energy company was granted a guaranteed loan by the Department of Energy. SunPower could be a bigger scandal than Solyndra. This time the green energy grifters took the money and ran south of the border:

American module and system manufacturer SunPower has announced that it will open a new plant in Mexico. It will produce the SunPower E18, E19 and E20 modules and the SunPower T5 Solar Roof Tile system.

The plant will be located in Mexicali, close to the U.S. border and inland from the border city of Tijuana. An existing 320,000 square foot building will be leased by SunPower for the facility.

"Establishing our own manufacturing facility in Mexicali means we will be positioned to quickly deliver our high-efficiency, high-reliability solar products to a growing North American solar market," SunPower's CEO Marty Neese said when announcing the new plant.

A pattern has developed among these green energy companies: if you are politically connected you can get taxpayer cash. SunPower is no exception:

The company is also politically connected. Rep. George Miller's son is SunPower's top lobbyist. The elder Miller, a powerful California Democrat, toured the plant last October with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and reportedly said, "We've worked hard to make renewable energy a priority because it represents America's future economic growth. Today, businesses like SunPower are moving forward, hiring 200 people for good clean energy jobs in the Easy Bay."

It’s not clear what role, if any, either of them played in securing the loan. Miller’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

An Energy Department official denied crony capitalism was a factor in the loan guarantee.

“The notion that political connections played any role in this application is simply false,” the official said. “This application was approved based on the exhaustive due diligence of the career professionals in the loan program, and nothing else.”

And it was the same career bureaucrats that have been giving away taxpayer largess to companies like Solyndra

. Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/12/solar-firm-that-received-12-billion-federal-loan-plagued-by-financial-problems-702546811/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fpolitics+%28Internal+-+Politics+-+Text%29#ixzz1acgohyrw

http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/sunpower-to-open-mexican-plant_100003821/

Solyndra: A Case Study of Doomed Crony Socialist Venturism

Crony capitalism is alive and well in the Obama administration. For all of you Marxist out there who clapped and cheered for the worker utopian paradise promised by the Anointed One’s rhetorical mastery; guess what? You’ve been duped.

The hottest scandal is not the Fast and Furious program that also plagues this 2nd amendment hating regime. No, that can be forgiven by the socialist who support Obama. What cannot be forgiven is his hypocrisy on corporatism. And Solyndra is the fish tail slapping the face of all the capitalist hating ideologues in the Democratic Party.

Solyndra not only screwed the taxpayers out of a half billion dollars in Department of Energy guaranteed loans; it has come to alight that an additional $469 million was also promised by the DOE in an SEC filing by this bankrupt company:

A close look by LA Observed at the company's SEC filings shows that it also was seeking additional DOE loan guarantees of $469 million for Phase II of its so-called Fab 2 solar power manufacturing facility in Fremont. And, get this, DOE - according to Solyndra's Dec. 18, 2009 application for SEC approval to sell common stock - tentatively gave this 2nd loan application its approval. Here's the story right from Solyndra's own S-1:

"On September 11, 2009, we submitted Part 1 of an application for an approximately $469 million guaranteed loan to be utilized to finance the construction of Phase II. As with the financing facility for Phase I, the loan would be made by the Federal Financing Bank and guaranteed by the DOE. On November 4, 2009, we were notified by the DOE that our Part 1 application was complete and that Phase II was determined to be a Section 1703 eligible project and to have the credit subsidy cost for the project paid out of funds allocated under Section 1705. We submitted Part 2 of our loan guarantee application on November 17, 2009."

Solyndra is the gift that keeps on giving. Can you imagine how many other socialist venture programs that have been doomed to failure? And all at the expense of taxpayers.

Source: http://www.laobserved.com/intell/2011/09/solyndras_sec_filing_contains.php

Solyndra is the Epitome of a Public/Private Partnership

Solyndra is another example of how a public/private partnership is doomed to failure. ABC News (surprisingly) reported the following:

The new probe involves the $535 million loan, arranged by the Energy Department, but actually processed by the Federal Financing Bank, a government lending institution that falls under Treasury's control. Already, the FBI and the Energy Department's inspector general have executed search warrants at Solyndra's headquarters and questioned company executives.

"We're going to look at everything the FFB had to do with its role in this thing," Rich Delmar, a spokesman for the Treasury Department's inspector general, told ABC News and iWatch News.

Earlier this month, iWatch News and ABC News disclosed that Solyndra received a rock-bottom interest rate of 1 to 2 percent -- lower than those affixed to other Energy Department green energy projects. The low rate was set even as an outside agency, Fitch Rating, scored Solyndra as a B+ -- "speculative" -- investment. Energy Department officials said the bank set the rate, based on formulas including the payout length, and that Solyndra did not receive special treatment.

You would’ve thought that the monstrous failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would put an end to the plaudits of crony capitalism. But here we are again, with the taxpayers bending over and grabbing their ankles, while the politicians and bureaucrats stuff their pockets and lord their power over we plebeians.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/solyndra-loan-now-treasury-launching-investigation/story?id=14521917

Will Solyndra Become Obama's Teapot Dome Scandal

Will Solyndra become the Teapot Dome Scandal of the Obama administration? It certainly has the stench of corruption that tainted Warren G. Harding’s presidency. Here is a footnote of abrasive crony capitalism:

The Scandal: One of the politicians who opposed the conservation was Senator Albert B. Fall who became Warren Harding's Secretary of the Interior in 1921. Fall, upon becoming the Secretary of the Interior, convinced Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby to turn the control of the oil fields over to him. Fall then moved to lease the Teapot Dome to Harry Sinclair's Mammoth Oil Company and the Elk Hills reserve to Edward Doheny's Pan American Petroleum Company. In return for leasing these oil fields to the respective oil magnates Fall received "gifts" from the oilmen totaling about $400,000. Fall attempted to keep actions secret but his sudden improvements in standard of living drew speculation. The scandal was first revealed to the public in 1924 after findings by a committee of the U. S. Senate. The individual within the Senate who took charge of investigating the alleged wrongdoing by Fall was Thomas J. Walsh, a democrat from Montana. Albert Fall had made legitimate leases of the oil fields to the private companies but the taking of money was his undoing.

The Solyndra scandal goes all the way up to the president himself. A major investor in the company was a bundler for Obama’s campaign. And now it is being revealed that other green energy companies are cashing in:

On September 7, the [Department of Energy] announced its plan to guarantee 80 percent — or $275 million — of a $344 million private loan taken out by the firm SolarCity. The company installs rooftop solar systems that harvests electricity SolarCity then sells.

The guarantee means that if SolarCity’s project does not succeed, the DOE will use taxpayer money to pay back 80 percent of the company’s private loans.

And here is another company sucking off of the taxpayer teat:

Solexel is financially backed by venture capitalist Steve Westly. In 2008, Westly bundled for Obama’s presidential campaign, bringing in more than $500,000. Westly also served as a California co-chair and was a member of the National Finance Committee for the Obama for American campaign.

He’s at it again for the president’s 2012 re-election campaign. So far, Westly has bundled between $100,000 and $200,000.

There was speculation on Harding’s involvement in the Teapot Dome Scandal. Unfortunately, he died in office and was unable to defend himself; forever tainting his tenure as one of the most corrupt in American history.

It looks like Obama is well on his way of surpassing that mile marker.


Source: http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/hpolscrv/jzeck.html

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63393.html

http://moonbattery.com/?p=2216