Sep 15 2011
Solar Energy & Political Green ($$$)
I have hesitated to pontificate too much on the gun runner fiasco that let thousands of guns out on the street to maim and kill. Trust me, the government bureaucracy is capable of immense mistakes caused by what normal people would call criminal negligence. Basically, stupidity at such a level it is a danger or threat to others, but is not accompanied with an intent to harm.
But the recent recent news about the Obama administration funneling hundreds of millions of $$$ in loans to a ‘green company’ that promptly blew the money and went bankrupt – for the taxpayer to bail out – is not just stupidity run amok. While stupid, it was also clearly premeditated:
The Obama White House tried to rush federal reviewers for a decision on a nearly half-billion-dollar loan to the solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra so Vice President Biden could announce the approval at a September 2009 groundbreaking for the company’s factory, newly obtained e-mails show.
The Silicon Valley company, a centerpiece in President Obama’s initiative to develop clean energy technologies, had been tentatively approved for the loan by the Energy Department but was awaiting a final financial review by the Office of Management and Budget.
The August 2009 e-mails, released exclusively to The Washington Post, show White House officials repeatedly asking OMB reviewers when they would be able to decide on the federal loan and noting a looming press event at which they planned to announce the deal. In response, OMB officials expressed concern that they were being rushed to approve the company’s project without adequate time to assess the risk to taxpayers, according to information provided by Republican congressional investigators.
Solyndra collapsed two weeks ago, leaving taxpayers liable for the $535 million loan.
One e-mail from an OMB official referred to “the time pressure we are under to sign-off on Solyndra.” Another complained, “There isn’t time to negotiate.”
Emphasis mine of course. Earlier this week I claimed the emails clearly showed White House pressure to make the decision based on a political photo op and not on due diligence, as is the responsibility of all government employees. By circumventing the legal process and pushing the decision to a major Obama contributor, the inexperienced ignoramuses in the White House forgot there are bright legal lines that cannot be crossed that insulate the functions of government from political malfeasance.
It is clearly illegal to bypass laws and override concerns when it comes to handing out taxpayer money. These are known as political pay offs and in this case there is little doubt it occurred. Just answer this question: would Solyndra have garnered the special loan and conditions of the White House stayed neutral? Clearly not, since the business case (making solar cells at many times the going price) is laughable.
This White House is now in serious, serious legal trouble. From now on it will have one and only one priority – protect itself. It’s political capital is now spent and it can only limp to a 2012 defeat. There will be no impeachment – the country has no will or taste for that at the moment. But America will count down the days to fire these buffoons and look to hire new management.
This is not just the White House here. It is the entire Rat Party led by Al GlobalBaloney Gore. We might possibly owe the Lyin kING a thank-you for he is the weasel in the Rats nest who has by his presence and his bull headed ideology forced the Rats from cover and into the light. They alone own the HealthScare crap, they and a few ignorant repubs, Newt, own the GlobalBaloney that was merely a transfer of wealth vehicle.
The Rats have been driven from the nest by the weasel in the White House, but do not expect that to deter them. Ben Nelson traitor D NE is in campaign mode now trying to be a moderate, alas traitor Ben, no amount of pandering now will atone for the true colors exhibited on the take over of 1/6 th of the economy voted for by you and your fellow Rat travelers, and never forget the party of Mediscare and social security took 500 billion from medicare for their healthscare failure and are even now draining funds from social security as the payroll tax break that is in effect comes from social security taxes NOT the general fund tax. This so it does not show up in the deficit. Taking money from social security even as they use it to scare seniors against the true reformers who would save it.
Despicable Rats!
I watched the Solyndra hearings yesterday and the witnesses seemed to want to throw everyone under the bus and blame and point fingers at everyone else,in particular Bush.
The dem side agreed with that as the game plan and somehow said we must spend even more on projects like this to compete with China.
Well I wish they could explain to me how with labor costs here,regulation costs and tax rates on corporations they ever think we could effectively do that. Even if you could make the cells and panels for free the overhead alone would still not allow us to be competitive with China.
Here’s the latest…
From a New York Times report on the Solyndra loan scandal (via The Corner – NRO online):
The White House provided about 900 pages of e-mails this week to the committee, which had asked for all correspondence between Obama aides and Solyndra executives. Most of the correspondence concerned logistics for a visit by Mr. Obama in the spring of 2010.
However, several e-mails from the company to the White House flagged and sought to discredit a handful of articles that had questioned the company’s financial viability as far back as July 2010. A Solyndra official, David Miller, called one such report baseless and noted that Solyndra “had no intention of going out of business” and that its goal was to be “a true success story for this administration to point to.”
Another Solyndra e-mail, from this past May, informed the White House that “things are going well” at the company and that it had “good market momentum, the factory is ramping up and our plan puts at cash positive later this year. Hopefully, we’ll have a great story to tell toward the end of the year.”
A White House official, Greg Nelson, replied: “Fantastic to hear that business is doing well — keep up the good work! We’re cheering for you.”
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Yup – business is doing well…
Interesting poll out today – in spite of all the talking heads saying that Perry took a hit in the last debate, Perry’s poll numbers actually went UP in Florida afterwards, not down!
Florida, if you didn’t already know, is shaping up to be the KEY primary race on the GOP side, both because of it’s size and because of it’s apparently early date. (that’s still being worked out)
3 reasons I think this is happening:
1) telling the Truth about Social Security isn’t the candidate killer everyone in Washington thinks it is. People know the system is screwed up, and everyone under 50 knows that they’re not going to get out what they put into it. Everyone under 35 is pretty sure they won’t get anything back at all. Even the older demographic knows that the system is tottering, and continuing to lie about it won’t do anyone any good. Perry hasn’t put forward a good solution yet, but just by being willing to discuss the problem openly he’s marked himself as someone who has an honesty that a majority of voters find quite refreshing.
Romney has been doing a great job of making himself the Darling of the Washington Establishment, but that probably isn’t what the actual Voters are looking for this year.
2) Gardasil/Vaccination – overplayed to the point that the talk is now *helping* Perry, not hurting him. Bachmann especially jumped the shark on this one and probably killed her campaign by going over the top and jumping to the “ALL vaccinations are the Work of the Devil!” position. Didn’t think they would make Perry look like the level headed centrist in the race, but she did just that, while making herself look like a loon. C’mon, Michelle – *everyone* gets vaccinations today, and the fringe autism claim has been thorougly debunked. Perry’s method of imposing it was poor, but he’s already admitted that – attacking the idea of vaccination itself was just dumb.
3) This is going to be the most controversial point among conservatives, but electorally is also the most important, and could be the one factor more than any other that wins Perry both the nomination AND the Presidency.
That is – The Hispanic Vote. Note that his poll numbers jumped in Florida??? FLorida has extremely complicated demographics – probably the only state that is as challenging as Florida is Texas. Most people from other states don’t quite realize this, but Perry has run one of the most racially diverse States in the Union for 10 years now, and he’s navigated that minefield very well. (as opposed to those running Kalifornia, who have made a hash of the entire state with racially based boondoggles) That experience is invaluable – he knows what works, and what doesn’t work. It’s why many conservatives think he’s “soft” on immigration (if he’s soft, so am I, since his ideas are pretty much the same as mine) But most importantly, it gives him a huge edge among Hispanic voters, which will win the Florida primary for him, and put him in a commanding lead in delegates.
Perry’s immigration stance, rather than being a liability, looks like it may be his secret weapon.
Did you see the bit about General testifying in a closed session about being pressured to favor a Democratic donor for contractual award? Now talk about cronyism by Obama while remembering the vicious attacks by the left towards Cheney and Halliburton!
Now that there is a report in The Daily Beast that a 4 star General may have been prosssure by the Obama administration to alter his testimony so as to help one of their donors, the pattern is now obvious: corruption is the way this White House operates.
Talks of possible impeachment proceedings (without there actually being any) might help the Dems as it might help press Obama not to seek a second term, leaving the door open for Hillary.
I would imagine that getting Obama not to seek a second term is on the minds of many Dems — but they don’t want to be accused of being racist. And Obama’s ego seems too large to consider that possibility. As the months tick by, this window of opportunity shrinks as putting together a new campaign becomes increasingly difficult. The next 3 months will be interesting for sure.
More Green News!
Former CFO of ‘green’ group pleads guilty to fraud
Cameron J. Potter worked for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Dale told U.S. District Judge Thomas Phillips on Tuesday that Potter concocted a scheme in 2006 to skim $400,000 in Department of Energy grant money by creating phony invoices – a plot that he carried out for three years.
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I don’t want Obama to make a decision not to seek another term; allowing Hilary to step in. Otherwise, the race will become more difficult.
Or do you think it will be a breeze for Perry?
Lurker9876, I’m with you. I hope Obama’s narcissism stays put till after the election because Hillary would be a sizeable threat — being the first female president would be attractive to many — and she would just be a more skilled Obama in a pant suit without his present baggage. So our nation would be in great danger of more entitlements, weak defense policies, and Clintonian skullduggery.
Hillary won’t run, even if they ask her. She knows all too well – from losing the black vote in 2008 – what happens to any Dem that loses the black vote.
Electoral catastrophe. Obama won in 2008 with overwhelming minority vote turnout. Black voters will never vote for the GOP, but they WILL stay home rather than vote for the traitorous whitey that they will think pushed their boy out the door.
A Hillary run, under these circumstances, is probably a 47 state loss. And she knows it.
I was just playing with an electoral college map. If the GOP takes Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, and Indiana – and I think all those are a lock – and adds those to the states that voted for McCain in 2008, they are already past the necessary 270.
I don’t see any way that Obama – or any dem – puts together enough states to win. The real question is – will the GOP get it’s 60 vote majority in the Senate?
btw – I think Pennsylvania’s proposed 1 EV per Congressional district is a VERY good plan. And completely constitutional – Maine and Nebraska do that already. I’d like to see it passed.
A few years ago, I believe Rolling Stone had the next big bubble to be the Green bubble, if I recall correctly.
Green energy – funny, it never got to the big bubble stage. Little government funded bubble, perhaps – and it’s already popped.
Obama’s Green Energy Initiative spent $38 billion to create 65,000 jobs.
That’ $5.5 million PER job!
Consider this – you can probably start the average small business for $100,000, some for less, some more, but that’s an easy number to work with.
With that $38.6 Billion, you could have simply handed out $100,000 each to 386,000 entrepeneurs with the requirement that they create a small business with it. (see, they would have an incentive to make it work, since if they just scam the money they’re one and done, but if they make something work they may increase the value of what they have many times over)
For that $38.6 Billion that created 65,000 jobs, you could have created 386 THOUSAND small businesses! Take a pessimistic view and say 2/3 of them fail ( and I think it would be closer to 50/50) You would STILL have created 100,000 new BUSINESSES, each responsible for MORE than one job, and thus you would have used the money in a far better way than it was actually used.
I, like many people, don’t blindly oppose government spending on jobs. What I DO oppose is STUPID government spending that does more damage than it does good – and that is exactly what we have been doing.
by the way, lurker, you’re right – Delay was railroaded. Consider this one fact: No one had ever before been charged with the technical “Crime” that Delay was charged with. No one has ever been charged with it again. It was a “special crime” that was invented just for Delay, and applied to him only. That’s what most of our forbears would have called tyranny.
Drudge has it listed that Goldman Sachs was the sole financial adviser. Like the Rolling Stone article said(paraphrasing), Goldman’s next bubble (to burst) was the green kind.
Why was Goldman the only firm in the room when the decisions were being made about its competitors’ living or dying, I have heard?
lol, ivehadit, that’s not a serious question, is it?
just remember that in the debate (and this covers several administrations!) as to whether Treasury owns Goldmans, or Goldman’s owns Treasury, most people have long since decided it’s the latter. ESPECIALLY once Goldman CEO Hank Paulson and then his Mini-Me, Timmy Geithner, took over treasury and began to run the US Treasury like it was just another Goldman’s profit center.
Yeah, this state of affairs is something Bush deserves some blame for, but Obama’s only made things worse, and Goldman owns the current administration Lock, Stock, and Barrel.
that’s the answer, btw, as to why this administration has never seriously gone after anyone on Wall Street. This drives the libs crazy and none of them can figure it out. It ain’t hard to figure out – just follow where Obama gets all his really big money from.
Oh, and if you wonder why Goldman would finance the anti-business Obama, that’s the easiest question of all. Just consider, if you were a big trading firm – how much would YOU pay to guarantee that the US Treasury called you up and asked your permission before they put a new toilet paper roll up in the john? Each and every time????
You think this President bowed to the Saudi King? He gets on his hands and knees and presses his forehead tightly to the floor whenever he talks to Goldman!!!
AJ: Here is another “green” failure:
Per Yahoo News/AP
BEIJING — In the name of fighting pollution, China has sent the price of compact fluorescent light bulbs soaring in the United States.
By closing or nationalizing dozens of the producers of rare earth metals — which are used in energy-efficient bulbs and many other green-energy products — China is temporarily shutting down most of the industry and crimping the global supply of the vital resources
…….
General Electric, facing complaints in the United States about rising prices for its compact fluorescent bulbs, recently noted in a statement that if the rate of inflation over the last 12 months on the rare earth element europium oxide had been applied to a $2 cup of coffee, that coffee would now cost $24.55.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/China-Consolidates-Grip-on-nytimes-2650144197.html?x=0&.v=1
Lol, wws, you know I was tongue-in-cheek on that one. hehehe.
I don’t want to say too much because I may have to turn myself in to Attaaaaaaaaaaaaaack Waaaaaaaaaaatch, donncha know!
bobsunshine says:
September 16, 2011 at 5:35 pm
It’s not too late to stock up on standard 60 – 100 W incandescent bulbs…
A couple of crates of bulbs would last at least a decade!
This is a classic example of how government cannot allocate the wealth of the nation better than privately owned and operated organizations.
President Obama is a champion of the theory that capitalism is greedy and immoral and that government can (And should) operate the economy of a nation more effectively and ‘fairly’ than any private concern.
Solyndra is a classic example of why capitalism works and socialism does not.