Democrats Grow Desperate in NY-9

Mark Noonan11 Comments

From National Journal:

Democrats are showing the clearest sign yet of concern ahead of next Tuesday’s special election in New York’s 9th District – the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is going up on air with an expensive television buy in the campaign’s closing days.

According to buy information obtained by Hotline On Call, the DCCC has made a $483,500 TV ad buy in the district, starting tomorrow through Monday. The broadcast TV buy will not air on September 11, the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The Democratic … PAC, House Majority PAC, has also bought advertising time in the district as well…

If blue districts in New York are under threat, then how is the rest of the country going?  The Democrats don’t want to start next week with the loss of a House seat…it would just be too grand a demonstration that their programs are failing and thus it is time to follow a new course.  So, they are pouring in the money – and given the Democrats registration edge, I suspect it will be enough to pull out a win.  But if it winds up close, even if the Democrat wins it will still be a harbinger of what is to come next year.

HAT TIP:  Hot Air

San Diego Blackout

Mark Noonan75 Comments

Very strange – from NBC San Diego:

Communities across San Diego went dark Thursday afternoon as a power outage plagued parts of Southern California.

Southern parts of Orange County, Coachella Valley  and northern Mexico are experiencing outages as well.

Officials were unable to say when power would be restored…

…”Essentially we have two connections from the rest of the world: One of from the north and one is to the east. Both connections are severed,” said the SDG&E official, who also noted that the outage had prompted the San Onofre plant to be taken offline as well.

The FBI and SDG&E officials said the power outage was not related to a terror threat that officials notified the nation about at nearly the same time…

It is extraordinarily bizarre that both power lines went down at the same time – the odds against that happening are astronomical…if it wasn’t a terrorist attack, then just what was it?  However it happened, it makes you wonder about the security of our power grid.  Did some hacker break in and shut things down?

Very, very odd…

 

Obama Unveils $450 Billion Jobs Plan

Mark Noonan55 Comments

From the AP – first, bait the GOP with a tax cut:

…The newest and boldest element of Obama’s plan would slash the Social Security payroll tax both for tens of millions of workers and for employers, too. For individuals, that tax has been shaved from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent for this year but is to go back up again without action by Congress. Obama wants to keep it and deepen the cut to 3.1 percent for workers…

Then get on to Porkulus II – from Hot Air:

…According to CBS, more than $100 billion will go towards infrastructure and a similar amount will be comprised of money to states to hire more teachers and first-responders and tax breaks for small businesses…

Don’t get me wrong, I like teachers – but how are teachers going to get us out of a recession?  What Obama is really doing here is shoveling more money at government-union enterprises to keep employment up in those areas, thus assuring a large and steady stream of union donations to Obama’s re-election effort.  As for the infrastructure stuff…first off, didn’t we already spend hundreds of billions on that?  Secondly, did thos hundreds of billions actually create jobs?

And all this will lead to a campaign meme:  “I offered them a middle class tax cut, but those obstructionist GOPers in Congress were more interested in tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.  Let me be clear, I know that we have much to do and things are hard…but I need more time to get our do-nothing Congress motivated to work for the people”.

Its nothing but a campaign speech.  Obama knows that no policy he can use would help the economy, so now he’s just setting a blame-shifting stage and hoping we all sorta forget he’s been President since 2009.

UPDATE:  Bank of America may lay off 40,000 workers.

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! Unemployment Claims Surge

Mark Noonan6 Comments

From Reuters:

The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week, further evidence of a weak labor market just hours before President Barack Obama unveils a plan on job creation in a major address to Congress…

…Applications for unemployment benefits rose to 414,000 in the week ending September 3 from an upwardly revised 412,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Wall Street analysts had been looking for a dip to 405,000…

Why would analysts be look for a dip?  Over at FinViz, they report the expected number not a 405,000, but 400,000…and here it goes, again, with an “unexpectedly” higher number.  Are the analysts working on the “magic” theory in which an increasingly bankrupt nation will create jobs “just because”?  Are they just guessing?

That is what I figure – after all, how can you really analyze such a thing?  Not like you can call all the businesses in America on Monday and ask them how many they will lay off on Friday.  What this shows is that a great deal of the data we’re using to make decisions on is bogus…meaningless numbers put out by people who (a) think they have to put them out and (b) figure that any number is better than no number.

Better to just wait for the number – and until it drops below 250,000 a week, we’re not getting anywhere.

Obama’s Fat Cat Donors

Mark Noonan11 Comments

From Zero Hedge:

Before tomorrow’s 2012 pre-election speech in which President Obama’s vocal elocution will be earnest, and results – to put it mildly – tepid, about about how he could create jobs dammit, if only the Republicans would behave, it’s interesting to note who’s supporting Obama keep his job. A cursory look at the early stages of his campaign fundraising reveals that the same group of people that benefitted from policies (bi-partisan) that lavished them with cheap money, secret loans, debt guarantees and other forms of perks not available to the average citizen, are backing him for President… To date, Obama’s Presidential bid dosh comes largely from – wait for it – the financial sector. Yes, the same sector that screwed the country over, and that, despite some unpleasant lawsuits they will likely settle,  remains as powerful, unrepentant, unaccountable, selfish and Main-Street-destabilizing as before Obama took office…

You can read it and weep over at Open Secrets.  Now, to be fair, a lot of rich people will also be shelling out for the eventual GOP nominee – and we should find a way to discourage that…at all events, we won’t out-raise Obama in 2012 and, anyways, money won’t determine the winner – but Obama and his Democrats claim to be for the little guy.  Remember, one of the memes for Obama is how we nasty, mean, cruel GOPers are trying to destroy the middle class…on purpose, because we’re just such bastards.  We want everyone to die as long as millionaires and billionaires can get their private jet tax breaks…so go Democrat talking points.  But I ask you, do the 44 “bundlers” from the Securities and Investment industry who have ponied up $7.2 million for Obama represent the middle class?

The bankers are deathly afraid of one thing – a government which won’t bail them out.  So far, Obama has proven ever willing to screw everyone to bail out the banks.  In fairness to Obama, I doubt he fully understands what he’s been doing…completely insulated from day-to-day American living and never having had to struggle to make ends meet, Obama may not know how a bail out eventually causes higher food and energy prices for average Americans.  But whether Obama understands it or not, the fact is that he has been the bankers best friend since January 20th, 2009; and the amount of money the bankers are lavishing on Obama indicates they believe he’ll continue to be their friend if re-elected.

The middle class really has only one bulwark these days – the TEA Party.  Sure, a lot of TEA Partiers are Republicans, but even the GOP – from olden times the party of the middle class – has not fully grasped just how bad things are getting out there.  Only the TEA Party – being made up mostly of middle class Americans – understands.  The battle of 2012 is a battle of the Ruling Class against the Middle Class…with Obama and his bankers defending the Ruling Class while the TEA Party defends the Middle Class.

We’ll see how it comes out – we’ll find out, once and for all, who runs this nation.

 

GOP Debate

Mark Noonan32 Comments

Stanley Kurtz over at NRO’s The Corner gives it to Perry:

This was a very successful debate debut for Rick Perry. It confirms his position as the leader of the field. As of now, this race is a Perry-Romney duel, but Perry’s the one to beat. Romney and Perry were well matched tonight, but Perry’s appeal to the base means he’s got a leg up over Romney just by fighting to a draw, which he did at least, if not better…

It seems to be the consensus that Perry did well – which means a Perry win because it was his first time out and he didn’t blow it.  As for me, I do believe that Perry’s entry in to the race immediately ensured that Romney would not be the nominee…even if Perry doesn’t end up making it, he’s sure to take a good portion of Romney’s support, thus causing Romney to come up short when the votes start to be counted. The big question is whether or not the second tier candidates can take advantage of the Romney/Perry dogfight…while the two big boys battle it out a clever Bachmann or Cain stealing their clothes and heading off to early primary wins?  We shall see.

 

Obama Connection to Solyndra?

Mark Noonan3 Comments

Just what are the full details of that “green jobs” loan to Solyndra?  Inquiring minds want to know – and fortunately Bruce Krasting over at Zero Hedge has been digging around:

I wrote about the solar panel manufacturer Solyndra last week; “Government Investment Disaster in the Works” I highlighted all of the negatives that the company was facing.

It was pretty clear to me that that company was facing trouble. But I had no idea that they would file Chapter 11 the very next day. (Sometimes you just get lucky)

I also made note of some scuttlebutt that George Kaiser (Oklahoma oil billionaire) was involved with Solyndra. I have been looking for a confirmation of this. Kaiser is an important link in this story. He is also a very big fund-raiser for Obama. He is often referred to as a “Bundler”. In this case that means he encouraged/pushed others to put up money for the big O’s campaign…

Checking on that and Kaiser is, indeed, a bundler (per Open Secrets).  Don’t know how much he’s done for Obama lately, but for the ’08 cycle he raked in 33,600.00 for Obama – not as much as some of the big boys, but a tidy sum, none the less.  So, we have a big Obama donor who is heavily invested in a firm that Obama cares greatly about (remember, he used the firm as a backdrop for his efforts to convince the people that he’s doing good work as President) – that firm received a hefty loan from the government and has now gone bankrupt.  All that is bad enough…but the Zero Hedge article goes on to claim that in February of this year, Solyndra’s debts were reorganized in such a way that the taxpayer loan went to the back of the bus as far as repayment in bankruptcy goes, while firms like Kaiser’s went to the front of the line.  Convenient, huh?  Imagine that – just six months before it goes belly up, the debt structure is changed to the unusual situation where debtors like Kaiser are at the head of the line.  That is either stupendously good timing, or someone worked an inside deal…in this case, maybe a phone call to Barry or one of his minions from Kaiser?

We don’t know. Could be just the most amazing run of luck imaginable.  But it is something we need to know…after all, quite a lot of money was passed out via stimulus and we should get answers to the following:

1.  How many have failed?

2.  How many are currently in danger of failing?

3.  How many have investors people who were large donors to President Obama?

4.  In all the failed and possibly failed firms, did any of them have their debts reworked to put taxpayers last and banksters first?

I suggest a House hearing in order to clear this up.  Tens of billions of taxpayer dollars were doled out after the stimlus passed, and we need to ensure that it was all used properly…that no one used political connections to get the money nor used them to cover their losses for those firms which have failed.

Boehner: No Response to Obama Speech

Mark Noonan6 Comments

From Fox News:

Republicans have decided they’re not going to give a rebuttal to President Obama’s jobs speech later this week, a decision House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi took as a high affront to the White House.

At least three GOP lawmakers also have announced they’re not going to show up for the presidential address. House Speaker John Boehner’s office then confirmed Tuesday evening that nobody from the party would deliver an official televised response…

Nancy thinks we’re being mean…actually, we’re just being indifferent.  Unless Obama pulls out something really surprising – ie, a complete shift to GOP ideas on the economy – there is just not much to say about his speech.  From what we can tell, the speech will be some hundreds of billions in stimulus – more spending of money we don’t have in service of a policy which has already failed.  Maybe this is all just a strategic smokescreen and Obama will wow us and the whole world with a big policy change…but I’m not counting on it…and I’ll be able to read the speech afterwards if necessary.

As it stands right now, President Obama is a leader who has lost the respect of the American people…even the left is getting testy with him.  Obama has no one but himself to blame for this state of affairs…and if he hadn’t spent the last two and a half years routinely insulting us, things would be different.  Now it is up to Obama to show us different…and if he can’t do it, there is no need for us to try and burnish his image by pretending he’s doing anything worthwhile with this jobs speech.