Obama Administration

Lightsquared Scandal: More Attempts to Influence Testimony

Mark Noonan5 Comments

From the Daily Beast:

LightSquared, a wireless network backed by billionaire Democratic donor Philip Falcone, could beam broadband Internet everywhere—but some military officials fear it could interfere with critical GPS signals. Now, as The Daily Beast’s Eli Lake exclusively reports, two U.S. officials allege the White House tried to influence their testimony to rush key testing, to LightSquare’s benefit..

…On Monday, a second witness, Anthony Russo, director of the National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing, told The Daily Beast that he too was asked by the OMB to insert the 90-day timeframe into his testimony before the House Science Committee, but he refused. The hearing originally was scheduled for Aug. 3, then rescheduled for Sept. 8.

“They gave that to me and presumably the other witnesses,” he said. “There is one sentence I disagreed with, which said that I thought the testing could be resolved in 90 days. So I took it out.”…

Are you grasping all that, liberals?  In service of a billionaire who is a Democrat and a donor to the party, the Obama Administration tried to smooth things along even though the US military and other agencies had grave questions about the risks of the new wireless project.  Do you begin to understand?  Does it start to dawn on you that all your liberalism is merely a cover for the Ruling Class to gain power and wealth?  They’ll throw  you a bone of “gay rights” or affirmative action, but the real program is just power and wealth…

I doubt you’ll get it.  For ages you have been propagandized that it is we Republicans who do that…and, to be sure, you can find the odd Republican here and there willing to sell out to corporate interests.  But not like this – not in a systemic fashion where everything is for sale.  And the base of the GOP is firmly against this “crony capitalism” and wishes for a restored, genuine free market in which well-connected corporate bosses aren’t able to suppress competitors and gain government privileges.

More and more it looks as though the Obama Administration – in pure, Chicago-style politics – as put a “for sale” sign on the United States.  While Pelosi and Reid ran Congress, there was no oversight at all…and that is why it is only now, 8 months after the GOP took the House, that it is all coming to light.  We all expected Obama’s liberalism and we feared the Chicago Way…but even I didn’t suspect that Obama and his cohorts would be so crude and grasping in these matters…that they would act no better than a Chicago ward boss.

Now more than ever it is vital that Obama be defeated next year…this is already bad enough, but imagine what it will be like if Obama is re-elected and never has to fear the voters again?  It will become a corrupt free-for-all and our national inheritance will go to the highest bidder.

UPDATE:  Rep. Issa to hold hearings on these screwball loans and the general Obama Administration practice of trying to pick free market winners.

Solyndra Raided by the FBI

Mark Noonan1 Comment

Interesting – from NBC Bay Area:

FBI agents armed with search warrants descended Thursday morning on bankrupt solar company Solynrda.

The investigation comes after a request by the Department of Energy’s inspector general, FBI spokesman Peter Lee told NBC Bay Area News…

Bit unclear what the issue is – but Daily Caller takes note of the number of times Solyndra execs visited the White House:

Not only does the now-bankrupt solar energy firm Solyndra have a cozy financial  relationship with the Obama administration, company representatives also made numerous visits to the White House to meet with administration officials, The Daily Caller has learned.

According to White House visitor logs, between March 12, 2009, and April 14, 2011, Solyndra officials and investors made no fewer than 20 trips to the West Wing. In the week before the administration awarded Solyndra with the first-ever alternative energy loan guarantee on March 20, four separate visits were logged…

So, what are we to make of this?  Best I can figure is that with calls being made for an investigation in to how Solyndra managed to get federal backing, this raid is a means of forestalling Congressional investigators…the Administration can say they are willing to cooperate but they can’t release all the data due to an on-going, criminal investigation in to Solyndra.  How much would anyone like to bet me that the investigation goes on until at least November 7th, 2012?

Rather fishy, I think…

Trying to Get “Fast and Furious” Answers

Mark Noonan11 Comments

From the Arizona Daily Star:

Sen. John McCain has requested a Congressional hearing on the much-maligned gun trafficking investigation led by the ATF.

Up until recently, two fellow Republican legislators — Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., — have led the Congressional inquiries into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “Fast and Furious” operation…

…“The committee should hold a meeting as soon as possible to examine these new revelations and determine what additional measures are needed to help prevent this type of malfeasance from occurring again,” McCain wrote in a letter addressed to Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

The veteran Arizona Senator is asking for the committee to call the U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder; the Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano; and the ATF’s acting director, B. Todd Jones; as witnesses…

In this case, Obama had better hope he loses next year – you see, the only thing holding back Watergate-style hearings on this is the fact that Democrats still control the Senate.  Given the number of vulnerable Democrats up for re-election next year and the number the GOP needs to win to gain control, it is almost a certainty that Harry Reid won’t be in charge of the Senate come January, 2013.  At that point, there is no protection for the Administration in covering up this scandal…which is, in fact, worse than Watergate with the only thing entirely unknown at this point is the President’s role.

My view is that the Administration, in an effort to gin up support for gun control, cooked up a plan to have American weapons transferred to the drug cartels, knowing they would be used in crimes which Mexico would then blame on us…a media frenzy would erupt and demands would be made for restrictions on gun ownership.  Presto, gun control is back in to the American political mix after having been dead and buried for more than a decade. The only reason it didn’t work out like that is because an American border patrol agent was murdered with the guns and a couple people involved blew the whistle.

We do need to get to the bottom of this – who ordered the program and why they did it.  Putting Holder, especially, under oath is important here.  I don’t expect him to tell the truth, but I either want prosecutable perjury against him, or the spectacle of him taking the 5th.  Such actions could break lose other people who do know the truth and then we’ll find out what happened and why.

Obamunism! Killing Green Jobs

Mark Noonan5 Comments

From Investor’s Business Daily:

President Obama’s green jobs agenda has become a victim of its own red tape. Several internal reports show that state-level projects have stalled for years due to federal regulations favored by labor and green groups — big boosters of the green jobs push…

This is what you get when you attempt a Big Government solution – parts of the Big Government will work against other parts of it.  Remember, it is only average Americans who want jobs…for the union officials, government bureaucrats and liberal activist groups, the agenda is quite different.  The unions, naturally, want to ensure that all the money only goes to union-approved (and thus over-priced) contractors.  Government bureaucrats want to ensure that the money only goes to contractors who donate the right way.  Liberal pressure groups – in this case, environmentalists – want to ensure that they get a cut of the pie, even if they bring nothing to the table.

The thing we can never get our liberals to understand is that government can never get it right.  Even in the areas where government is supposed to have the authority (law enforcement and national defense) the government gets it wrong.  For all the splendid people in the military and law enforcement, which of us couldn’t in five minutes search find a score of examples of corruption and incompetence in both areas?  And the people in the military and law enforcement are leavened by a those who actually have a selfless dedication to duty…for government agencies without that esprit d’corps, it becomes one gigantic mess.  Think about it – in the Army you’ll find a large number of people who will leap on a grenade to save their friends…how many people at the Department of Energy do you think would do that?  And so how many people at Energy are really willing to sacrifice their own careers in order to advance the the prosperity of those they don’t know and will never meet?

When you put government in charge of trying to make things work you are putting the job in the hands of people who are most likely to fail.  They are not spending their own money, they are not going to put their own future on the line…their prime motivation is to ensure the least amount of work for the highest amount of pay, ending up with a fat pension when they are still relatively young.  That anyone ever thought that the government could lead the way in switching us to a “green” economy demonstrates that we’ll never lack for stupidity.

Scrap it; provide tax incentives to those private enterprises who are investing in green technology and just let the natural development of the economy take it the rest of the way.  There won’t be anything in there to provide fat contracts, cushy jobs and opportunities for graft, but we’ll eventually get a green economy…

Obamunism! Michelle Obama’s Lavish Lifestyle

Mark Noonan13 Comments

From the Mail:

The Obamas’ summer break on Martha’s Vineyard has already been branded a PR disaster after the couple arrived four hours apart on separate government jets.

But according to new reports, this is the least of their extravagances.

White House sources today claimed that the First Lady has spent $10 million of U.S. taxpayers’ money on vacations alone in the past year…

The exact dollar amount isn’t really all that important – what is important i that, clearly, the First Lady has been living a high end lifestyle while America has sunk further in to debt and poverty.  This is just insensitive…and unwise; if Michelle Obama cares anything for her husband’s political future, she’ll knock it off.

Under the best of circumstances, moving the President around takes a lot of money…just in actual staff the bill is huge.  When you add in the cost of staying some place, providing food and then the complex security arrangements necessary for the President, you start to get in to mind-boggling figures.  President and Mrs. Obama should have a little more sense – sure, the President does need a vacation.  It is the most demanding job in the world…but the White House is pretty swell and Camp David is nearby.

Hopefully the mounting criticism of the President will force a bit of re-thinking on the part of the Obamas.  It is time to live cheap, while America tries to recover.

 

 

Huckabee: Replace Geithner with Trump

Mark Noonan11 Comments

From CNN:

Amid calls by the GOP for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s resignation, one Republican is offering an unorthodox choice for a potential replacement.

“Ask Donald Trump to be Treasury secretary,” Mike Huckabee said on Fox News Channel.

The former Arkansas governor elaborated: “Have Donald Trump take the job for 90 days. It’s a game changer.”…

Trump certainly wouldn’t be worse than Geithner and may end up a lot better.  Certainly, unless Obama really changes course at this point we’re heading for a really bad time.  Even a major course change won’t completely get us out of the soup…but swift action, now, can prevent “bad” from becoming “hideous”.  If not Trump, then someone who has a bit of guts and a bit of knowledge of business.

But I doubt we’ll see it – Obama may call in Underbus to rid himself of a political liability, but I doubt Obama even sees the need for a real change, let alone what that change might entail.