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.

Obamunism! Worst Recovery, Ever

Mark Noonan13 Comments

From Investors Business Daily:

…By consensus, the most recent recession ended in June 2009, less than six months after Obama took office.

According to the NBER, in the 60 years prior to Obama’s tenure, we had 10 recessions.  In the two years following those respective recessions, average real (inflation-adjusted) quarterly GDP growth was 5%, according to federal government figures. In the two years of Obama’s “recovery,” average real quarterly GDP growth has been just 2.4%, less than half of the historical norm coming out of a recession…

And, honestly, if you take out the bogus effects of money-printing, we’ve probably had little or no real growth.  Obama’s economic policies didn’t get us out of the recession (his policies could not have taken effect quickly enough) but they have ensured that the recovery, such as it was, failed to deliver the necessary growth to restore American prosperity.

And now Obama is proposing more of the same – the news has it that Obama will propose a $300 billion jobs plan, most of which amounts to extending various tax credit already enacted…while, of course, tacking on a few more “shovel ready” jobs (watch the speech – Obama will not say the word “stimulus” nor the phrase “shovel ready”; they have been banned from Democrat talking points…because they failed and Democrats don’t want to admit it).  The GOP will have to respond in some manner so that we’re not tagged as “anti-job”, but whatever it is Obama wants will have to be offset by spending reductions elsewhere.  For the most part, though, I don’t think that the people will care what Obama says…especially as he’ll say nothing new.

2012 can’t get here fast enough…

Leaving the Cult?

Mark Noonan76 Comments

As we all discussed in the Labor Day Open Thread, Mike Lofgren over at Truth Out has written an article explaining why he left the increasingly lunatic GOP “cult” – but as I read it, the views Lofgren express indicate that even if he once upon a time had a GOP voter registration, his views are actually (and rather lock-step) in line with the leftwing extreme of American politics.  For example:

…Some liberal writers have opined that the different socio-economic perspectives separating the “business” wing of the GOP and the religious right make it an unstable coalition that could crack. I am not so sure. There is no fundamental disagreement on which direction the two factions want to take the country, merely how far in that direction they want to take it. The plutocrats would drag us back to the Gilded Age, the theocrats to the Salem witch trials. In any case, those consummate plutocrats, the Koch brothers, are pumping large sums of money into Michele Bachman’s presidential campaign, so one ought not make too much of a potential plutocrat-theocrat split…

The condemnation of liberals as weak-kneed combined with the accusation that the GOP wants to grind the poor and burn witches is classic leftist dogma…the sort of thing we’ve seen out of the left since Lenin asserted that only Bolsheviks have a right to be heard.  As I said, I can’t determine whether Lofgren is a former GOPer who switched – but his views as written are not those of someone dismayed at the direction of the GOP, but of someone who despises the entire GOP.  This is not like, say, Arlen Specter switching from Republican to Democrat and still holding 99% of the views he held as a Republican…this is a night and day difference.  Like Specter switching from the GOP to the Communist Party.  Lofgren isn’t so much leaving the GOP “cult” as proclaiming his adherence to the kook left cult.

And as a kook leftist, Lofgren gets it all wrong.  Even when he correctly identifies a problem (rapacious Big Corporation, eg) his proposed solution (more Big Government) fails to recognize that Big Corporation and Big Government are two sides of the same coin.  It staggers the mind to read Lofgren condemn GOPers as ignorant when he can’t even see that the whole system is corrupt – and only a break up of the system (Big Government and Big Corporation) will allow the people to recover their freedom and with it their prosperity.

The system we have today is the result of a century of giving people power over others.  We started out, as a nation, with a federal government which could barely interfere in the lives of Americans.  Over the last century we have continually increased the power of government and corporations until the initiative of the American people has been stifled.  Do you really think there was a popular demand to stop drilling for oil, mining for metal and growing food?  No – that took major, sustained action by government and corporations to accomplish.  Our ability to create wealth has been stifled because those in charge of government and the largest corporations prefer us to be dependent…bribed to peace with welfare and distracted by trivial  gadgets and disgusting popular culture.  It allows the Ruling Class to continue undisturbed.  We do need massive change…but it won’t and can’t come from the left…because all a leftist like Lofgren would do is strengthen the fetters on the people.

In the end, the people who will save this nation are those Lofgren most despises…those TEA Partiers and their notions of constitutional governance, and their adherence to what Lofgren clearly considers to be a worn-out Judeo-Christian morality.  It will be the bitter-clingers who will restore American greatness…while leftists of the Lofgren stripe ill be consigned, deservedly, to the ash heap of history.

As Greek 1 Year Bonds Rise to 88%…

Mark Noonan7 Comments

…the Eurozone dimwits prescribe “more of the same”.  From the New York Times:

…As Europe struggles to contain its government debt crisis, the greatest fear is that one of the Continent’s major banks may fail, setting off a financial panic like the one sparked by Lehman’s bankruptcy in September 2008.

European policy makers, determined to avoid such a catastrophe, are prepared to use hundreds of billions of euros of bailout money to prevent any major bank from failing…

It is getting rocky for Europe’s banks, to be sure – it is getting harder and harder to secure those short term loans banks need to keep operating.  If any one of the major European banks fails to obtain the necessary operating capital, then that will be the end of the global financial system.  Given this, you can understand why the bureaucrats and banksters want to do something…the problem is that they are planning on doing what has already been done, and failed.   Most people were suckered by the bailout of the “too big to fail” banks in 2008 and 2009 – we bought the story that if we just did this, all would be made well.  Turns out it didn’t work…so now we’re back to square one in 2011 but with much higher debt and greatly devalued currencies.  To try it a second time is asinine…but not trying it means default, and that scares the Ruling Class.

And it mostly scares them not because of the loss of wealth (someone who is worth millions or billions and loses 50% of his wealth is still pretty darn rich, after all) but because it could spark political revolutions all across the world…it won’t be a matter of a financial shark like Soros or Buffett taking a hit on the balance sheet, but of the whole political-economic structure being overturned…and thus our financial sharks will lose their power to influence government.  That is what scares them – that is what is making them attempt what they know will fail, but which just may keep the global economy out of recession until late 2012 or 2013…by which time they hope that something else will come up to preserve them in power.

Personally, I don’t think they’ll be able to pull it off – a round of printing money (which is the only way they can keep the insolvent banks afloat) would so increase inflation that it would kill off whatever economic activity we currently have.  People would be forced to spend an ever increasing part of their income on necessities, thus leaving ever less for the frills…more money on food, less money on electronic gadgets.  Gadget makers feel the pinch and start laying people off (mostly because that is the corporate drill..profits down?  Lay people off…never even think about using them more efficiently; that would take effort and some basic, human decency).  It spirals down from there.  Whatever “puff” they can put in to the economy by another round of bail outs will be so damaging that the net result would be worse than if they let things just crash…including “worse” in the Ruling Class sense, as people are on to the scam and another round of it leading to even worse times will just make the revolution burn hotter.

And, “burn, baby, burn”, is all I have to say…I’m heartily sick of things as they are and a little revolution, now and then, is a good thing.