Monday, October 31, 2011
FOLLOW UP ON CALIFORNIA POSTER GIRL
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IS ANYONE SURPRISED?
Second Energy Department-backed company goes bankrupt
- 10/31/11 08:04 AM ET
A Massachusetts company that received a $43
million Energy Department loan guarantee last year filed for bankruptcy Sunday,
a step certain to fuel criticism of federal green energy financing in the wake
of the solar company Solyndra’s collapse.
Beacon Power Corp., which develops energy storage systems, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
Beacon Power Corp., which develops energy storage systems, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
Beacon Power had received federal loan guarantee to help
build an energy storage plant in Stephentown, New
York that began operating in January. The Treasury
Department’s Federal Financing Bank provided the loan.
Beacon sought bankruptcy protection two days after the White House ordered an independent 60-day evaluation of the Energy Department's loan programs aimed at ensuring effective management and monitoring.
The review, conducted by a former Treasury Department official, will include examination of how Beacon’s project is performing going forward, and whether there are additional steps that can be taken to protect taxpayers, according to the Obama administration.
The Beacon bankruptcy comes roughly two months after the California
solar panel maker Solyndra, which had received a $535 million Energy Department
(DOE) loan guarantee in 2009, went belly up and laid off 1,100 workers.Beacon sought bankruptcy protection two days after the White House ordered an independent 60-day evaluation of the Energy Department's loan programs aimed at ensuring effective management and monitoring.
The review, conducted by a former Treasury Department official, will include examination of how Beacon’s project is performing going forward, and whether there are additional steps that can be taken to protect taxpayers, according to the Obama administration.
Solyndra’s collapse unleashed a torrent of GOP-led attacks on the Energy Department’s loan guarantee program.
Solyndra and the broader loan guarantee program are under investigation in the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
“This latest failure is a sharp reminder that DOE has fallen well short of delivering the stimulus jobs that were promised, and now taxpayers find themselves millions of more dollars in the hole,” said Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the GOP’s point man on the Solyndra investigation and a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, in a statement to The Hill and other outlets.
“Unfortunately for the American taxpayers, I am deeply concerned that other DOE programs could follow which goes to the heart of the President's flawed economic program,” he said.
Stearns is chairman of the energy panel’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, which is expected to vote Thursday to subpoena internal White House communications about Solyndra.
Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera said there are “many protections for the taxpayer” in the agreement with Beacon Power.
“The Department’s loan guarantee is for the project Stephentown Regulation Services, LLC, not the parent company, and the loan was set up in a way that ensures the Department is not directly exposed to the liabilities of the parent company,” he said in an email Monday.
The department also sought to contrast the Beacon Power project and Solyndra, noting that Solyndra stopped manufacturing operations when it went bankrupt, while Beacon Power intends to continue operating the New York energy storage plant.
“It is important to note that this plant itself, which is operational and generating revenue, is a valuable collateral asset. In addition, under the terms of our loan guarantee agreement, Stephentown Regulation Services, LLC currently has cash reserves and proceeds from the plant that it was required to hold as collateral on the loan,” LaVera said.
The Energy Department also noted that the federal government retains its “senior status” for repayment in the loan agreement with Beacon Power.
In contrast, the Solyndra loan guarantee was restructured in early 2011 to put private investors – who had agreed to provide another $75 million to the struggling company – first in line for repayment if the company liquidated.
Beacon drew $39 million of the guaranteed loan to help finance the plant.
Beacon’s bankruptcy filing lists assets of $72 million and debt of $47 million, according to Bloomberg.
“The current economic and political climate, the financing terms mandated by DOE, and Beacon’s recent delisting notice from Nasdaq have together severely restricted Beacon’s access to additional investments through the equity markets,” CEO F. William Capp said in the bankruptcy filing, according to the financial news service.
The Energy Department has lauded Beacon’s flywheel energy storage technology as a way to improve power grid stability and help bring renewable power sources into the system.
“We will continue to support the development and deployment of innovative energy systems like this energy storage project that support our goal of expanding renewable energy generation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said when announcing the finalization of the agreement in August of 2010.
The loan guarantee program was first authorized in a 2005 energy bill crafted under GOP control of Congress and signed into law by then-President Bush, and expanded under President Obama’s stimulus law.
The program was slow to get off the ground, and first loan guarantees were not issued until the Obama administration took power.
This story was updated at 8:36 a.m. and 9:48 a.m.
Source:
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/190641-second-energy-dept-backed-company-goes-bankrupt
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/190641-second-energy-dept-backed-company-goes-bankrupt
CALIFORNIA POSTER GIRL
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Saturday, October 29, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
YOU SHOULD HAVE TO PASS A TEST
BEFORE YOU ARE
ALLOWED TO VOTE
Just wait until you hear this - it's short...............
THEY MUST GO
Okay…I’ve HAD it….REALLY had it with Michelle
Obama.
By Craig Andresen on September 14, 2011 at 12:06 pm
Her pronouncement years ago of being proud for
the first time in her adult life of her country PALES in comparison to what she
said during a 9-11 commemoration over the weekend.
This anti American socialist blathering FOOL has
gone WAY too far.
There she sat on Barack’s right side as
bagpipers played and an honor guard folded an American Flag. You know how it’s
done… with reverence and respect, folded precisely and crisply… honored. It was
during that moment that our nations “First Lady” leaned to her husband’s ears
and asked the question that should set your TEETH on fire! “All
of this for a damned flag?”
When Barack nodded, she sat back and gave a look
of disgust. There is no audio but you can clearly read her lips (An expert lipreader
verified this). HE doesn’t show the
least bit of surprise at her question!!
See the video by
“All of this for a damned flag?”
YES, ALL OF THIS FOR A FLAG!
This woman is beneath contempt and in NO WAY
worthy of the title she currently holds!!
“All of this for a damned flag?”
Michelle Obama has NO IDEA what that “DAMNED
FLAG” is or what it stands for…NOT A CLUE!!!
That flag… the stars and stripes to her must be
nothing more than an old rag… just a pieces of cloth sewn together and not
worth the consideration of a dust cloth.
That flag IS the representation of the GREATEST
NATION ON EARTH. That flag flies in honor of those who protect this nation with
their lives. It stands as a symbol of freedom and justice in this world. It
protects our liberty and our rights. Each star represents an individual state
and each stripe one of the 13 original colonies.
What irks me
most is that he nods in agreement to her statement - we need
to remember this on election day.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
SHARIAH LAW
I have been sounding the alarm for several years about Shariah Law creeping into our laws and courts. Here is my most recent post from last May. http://cyberpolyticks.blogspot.com/2011/05/shariah-law.html
It’s happening, just like I’ve been predicting. I copied the following from the “WND” web site.
Islamic law, or Shariah, already is being applied in the U.S. court system, according to an extensive new report.
A recent Center for Security Policy study called "Shariah Law and American State Courts: An Assessment of State Appellate Court Cases outlines dozens of cases in which the Islamic system of law has been applied.
Center spokesman David Reaboi said the Islamic strictures are being carried out mostly in cases in which foreigners are the principals.
"Shariah enters U.S. courts through the practice of comity to foreign law," Reaboi explained. "This happens, for example, when a judge decides to allow the use of say, Pakistani or Saudi family law (Shariah) in a dispute between Pakistanis or Saudis."
He said the study only scratches the surface of Shariah's presence in the nation.
"For every case in this sample drawn from published appellate legal cases, there are innumerable cases at the trial level that remain unnoticed except by the participants," the study said. "Thus, this report is a only a sample of possible cases – a 'tip of the iceberg' – of legal cases involving Shariah in local, state and federal courts."
Among the cases cited was one from New Jersey in which a wife sought a restraining order against her husband because of spousal abuse.
"S.D. (wife) and M.J.R. (husband) were both Muslims and citizens of Morocco and both resided in New Jersey. After only three months of marriage, husband began physically abusing wife. The physical abuse administered by husband injured wife's entire body including her breasts and pubic area," the report said. "Additionally, husband forced himself on wife and had non-consensual sex with her on multiple occasions. Husband stated to wife that Islam allowed him to have sex with her at any time he wished. Wife asked the trial court to grant a restraining order against husband shortly after he verbally divorced her in front of their imam," the report said.
"The trial court refused to issue a final restraining order against husband finding that, although husband had harassed and assaulted wife, husband believed it was his religious right to have non-consensual sex with his wife and that belief precluded any criminal intent on the part of husband," according to the report.
"The New Jersey appellate court reversed the trial court and ordered that the trial court enter a final restraining order against husband. The New Jersey appellate court stated that the trial court erroneously allowed the husband's religious beliefs to excuse him from New Jersey’s criminal code and that husband knowingly engaged in non-consensual sex with wife," the report said.
The report also presents details of 19 more "top cases" and a summary of 50 cases from 23 states that have used Shariah as the basis for court decisions.
American Center for Law and Justice Shariah expert Shaheryar Gill said in the prominent New Jersey case, "the judge actually looked at Shariah law to decide."
Gill says an ACLJ book, "Shariah Law: Radical Islam's Threat to the U.S. Constitution," discusses the problem.
"In the case of 'S.D. v. M.J.R,' the New Jersey appellate court rightly refused to accommodate the sincerely held religious beliefs of a Muslim man who physically, verbally, and sexually abused his wife in accordance with Shariah," the ACLJ book says.
The study emphasizes that family law is only part of the complete Shariah picture. It concludes that since Islamic religious law moves further than American constitutional law on a range of subjects, Shariah is incompatible with U.S. precedents.
"Institutionalized, authoritative Shariah is comprehensive and by definition without limit in its ambitions and scope, and it also includes legally mandated, recommended, permitted, discouraged and prohibited practices that are strongly biased and discriminatory against women, homosexuals and non-Muslims," the study said.
"Shariah law provides a legal framework for violence up to and including legalized murder against apostates (people who have left Islam), homosexuals, blasphemers and especially women accused of various crimes," the study said.
"Just this year in 2011, in Pakistan's Shariah legal system, both apostates and blasphemers have been imprisoned and faced execution. Shariah criminal punishments are extreme, including amputations and lashings for numerous crimes," the study reported.
WND reported in January about the high profile blasphemy case of Pakistani Christian woman Asia Bibi, who received the death penalty for blasphemy, simply for sharing the Gospel with her Muslim coworkers.
WND also reported in June that former terrorist Kamal Saleem agreed that one of the methods of carrying out jihad is through the courts.
"What they're trying to do is fake cases for Islam and these cases are done purposefully. We take an imam, there are two of them. They were fighting against each other and the fight was over a mosque," Saleem said. "That is so devious and it is part of the culture of Islamic invasion. These two imams are fighting over a mosque in Florida. Each imam says it belongs to me.
"One says I built it and I raised the funds. The other one says the Wahhabi government put me over here and they're the ones who sent the money. Both of them are right," Saleem continued.
"They went to the Supreme Court in Florida. What happened is that they said this was a Muslim matter and you need to judge us by Islamic Shariah law or you will not understand how these things work," he said.
Gill said there are other recent cases that demonstrate the level to which Shariah has infiltrated the court system.
"There are different types of cases in which you see that Shariah or Islamic law is applied or is required to be applied, or looked at," Gill said.
"For example, indirectly, there are cases in which foreign judgments are brought into the United States and enforced here," he said.
One such case according to the ACLJ's booklet is the case of 'Farah v. Farah,' heard in Virginia.
In that case, a Virginia trial judge recognized the validity of a Muslim marriage that was conducted through a proxy in England."
"The trial judge ruled that the marriage, which was solemnized in England (though no certificate of marriage was issued by any English authority) and its ceremony completed in Pakistan, must be honored in Virginia because 'the law of the state of Pakistan sanctions marriages performed under the personal law of the parties which in this case was Moslem law,'" the ACLJ book reported.
The book pointed out that the Virginia court, "correctly recognized, however, that Pakistan's recognition of Shariah 'does not control the issue of the validity of the marriage under Virginia law.' Instead, the court applied Virginia law, which only granted comity according to the principles of the location celebrating the marriage, which was England."
There is also the California case of "Malak v. Malak," which involved a Lebanese court decision.
"The court determined, however, that the Lebanese order was enforceable because even though the Lebanese court had not explicitly applied the 'best interests of the child' standard, its decision aligned with California's 'best interests of the child' standard," the ACLJ book said.
An Emory University Law School publication noted that the "Malak" case was cited as precedent in other Muslim child custody cases.
Atlas Shrugs publisher and Islam analyst Pamela Geller says that Islamic law cited as the basis for any American court decision shows that the American legal system is turning a dangerous corner.
"It is setting a very dangerous precedent. Shariah law and U.S. law conflict in numerous ways, including on issues of freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and equality of rights for women. Allowing Shariah to be a determining factor in U.S. courtrooms threatens those rights for all of us," Geller said.
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011
IT'S ALL A BIG SCAM
"ECO-SCAM"
Jobs -- Funded By Taxpayers -- Are Being Sent OVERSEAS! More Crony
Capitalism Exposed, Hurting YOU And Helping Obama's Friends!
YOU READ THAT RIGHT -- ABC News is reporting that the Fisker car company, "an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee, is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work."
WHAT??? They couldn't find ANYWHERE in America where they could build their "green jobs" taxpayer-funded probably-doomed-anyway electric car???
They sent what should be AMERICAN jobs... to FINLAND???
And just HOW did Fisker Automotive GET this sweet half-billion dollar taxpayer loan in the first place? Well, it sure didn't hurt them that they're backed by a "powerhouse venture capital firm" whose partners include... wait for it... former Vice President Al Gore!
WAIT -- it gets WORSE -- it's looking like Fisker, just like Solyndra, could be on track for a HUGE FAILURE... which means YOU AND I will have to cough up that half-billion dollars to cover their losses!!! ABC reports:
YOU READ THAT RIGHT -- ABC News is reporting that the Fisker car company, "an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee, is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work."
WHAT??? They couldn't find ANYWHERE in America where they could build their "green jobs" taxpayer-funded probably-doomed-anyway electric car???
They sent what should be AMERICAN jobs... to FINLAND???
And just HOW did Fisker Automotive GET this sweet half-billion dollar taxpayer loan in the first place? Well, it sure didn't hurt them that they're backed by a "powerhouse venture capital firm" whose partners include... wait for it... former Vice President Al Gore!
WAIT -- it gets WORSE -- it's looking like Fisker, just like Solyndra, could be on track for a HUGE FAILURE... which means YOU AND I will have to cough up that half-billion dollars to cover their losses!!! ABC reports:
"An investigation by
ABC News and the Center for Public Integrity's iWatch News that will air on
"Good Morning America" found that the DOE's bet carries risks for
taxpayers, has raised concern among industry observers and government auditors,
and adds to questions about the way billions of dollars in loans for smart cars
and green energy companies have been awarded. Fisker is more than a year behind
rolling out its $97,000 luxury vehicle bankrolled in part with DOE money. While
more are promised soon, just 40 of its Karma cars (below) have been
manufactured and only two delivered to customers' driveways, including one to
movie star Leonardo DiCaprio."
And another "green" car company -- Tesla Motors, whose prime backers include PayPal mogul Elon Musk and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin -- just released SEC filings revealing that the start-up has lost money every quarter. And while its federal funding -- to the tune of another half-billion dollars -- is intended to help it mass produce a new $57,400 Model S sedan, the company has absolutely no experience in a project so vast.
But who cares, right? They're friends of Obama!
It just keeps getting bigger. The Washington Post has dropped a bombshell in their latest exposé on the ever-growing Solyndra "Eco-Scam" -- "An investor in Solyndra who was also an Obama administration adviser pushed the White House in 2009 to support the solar panel maker. His push came as the company was seeking a half-billion-dollar Energy Department loan, documents show."
"David Prend, a
co-founder of the Boston venture capital firm Rockport Capital, met with
Obama's then climate czar, Carol M. Browner, in late February to discuss
clean-energy policies of the administration - and Solyndra's innovative solar
panels were mentioned. He then e-mailed a White House aide to "help get
the word out" about the company's pending partnership with the Obama
administration. Prend's Boston-based venture capital firm held 7.5 percent of
the company's equity."
At
the time he requested White House support, Prend was co-founder of Rockport
Capital, an early investor in Solyndra, starting in 2007. He also chaired a
renewable energy panel that advised Obama's Energy Department on solar
technologies and investments!
AND, Fox News has revealed, ANOTHER inside man on the Solyndra loan was Steve Spinner, "a former NBC executive who became a green energy guru who helped steer energy and environmental policy for the administration starting in the 2008 transition team." Spinner pushed for Solyndra to get the loan -- even though his wife was the lawyer for the now BANKRUPT solar firm!
And had you even heard that the head of the company that started the whole "ECO-SCAM" political scandal -- where big Democrat donors and buddies of Obama received HALF A BILLION DOLLARS in taxpayer-funded government loan guarantees, and then declared bankruptcy so we'd be left holding the bag -- has secretly resigned from his CEO position?
NO -- you hadn't heard that? NEITHER HAD ANYONE ELSE -- at least, until they were forced to reveal it by the Justice Department!
According to a new report by the Daily Caller, since NO ONE trusted Solyndra officials "to be forthcoming with accurate information about the company's finances," a "trustee" had to be brought in "to oversee its bankruptcy process." So, Solyndra had to file papers on response to that... and that is when we learned that Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison had "quietly resigned" LAST FRIDAY!
What we DON'T know is: HOW MUCH OF OUR TAXPAYER MONEY DID HE TAKE WITH HIM???
Obama's scandal that started with the failed Solyndra "green jobs" company is starting to look like a never-ending con game!
Now, it's been revealed that a solar company that's well-connected to Democrat leaders in Congress received a $1.2 billion loan guarantee from the taxpayers... so it could built a new manufacturing plant IN MEXICO to build the solar panels it will install at a photovoltaic ranch that will create a total of just fifteen permanent jobs!
THAT'S $80 MILLION (OF OUR MONEY) PER PERMANENT JOB -- THIS MUST BE STOPPED!
YOU READ THAT RIGHT: According to a report by Human Events, SunPower, "a failing California solar company, buffeted by short sellers and shareholder lawsuits, receive a $1.2 billion federal loan guarantee for a photovoltaic electricity ranch project -- threeweeks after it announced it was building new
manufacturing plant in Mexicali, Mexico, to build the panels for the
project."
How is this possible? How about the fact that SunPower converted an old Richmond, CA, Ford plant to a panel-manufacturing facility -- in the middle of the Congressional district of Rep. George R. Miller III (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee and the co-chairman of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee?
How about the fact that his son, George Miller IV, is a lobbyist for SunPower?
How about the fact that, in the last election, SunPower's Political Action Committee (PAC) donated $4,000 to Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), $3,000 to Rep. Gabrielle Gifford (D-AZ), $2,900 Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)... and some $500 in "walking around money" to Rep. Miller?
OBAMA AND HIS CRONIES ARE RAKING IN THE DOUGH WHILE TOSSING BILLIONS IN TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO THEIR WELL-CONNECTED FRIENDS!
All of these new revelations are coming out as thousands upon thousands of your faxes keep pouring into every single office on Capitol Hill, and Congress is taking notice -- they are widening their investigation into the Solyndra scandal even more!
According to a report by CNBC, "On Wednesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee broadened its investigation into the failed solar company Solyndra, sending a letter to the White House counsel's office requesting all West Wing communications regarding the decision to use taxpayer loan guarantees to back up the clean technology firm."
On Wednesday evening the committee clarified to CNBC that it is specifically asking for the Obama regime to turn over any emails on the matter that were sent by the president himself. A White House spokesman said he believes this is the first request by an investigative body for presidential emails.
THIS IS HUGE: The committee's request calls for ALL West Wing documents, including emails, dating all the way back to Barack Hussein Obama's inauguration on January 20, 2009!
This scandal just keeps GROWING. The latest news is that Obama's buddies at the top were planning to give hundreds of millions MORE taxpayer dollars to the company that they KNEW was about to fail! The Washington Post is reporting, "Newly released e-mails show the Obama administration's Energy Department was poised to give Solyndra a second taxpayer loan of $469 million last year, even as the company's financial situation grew increasingly dire.The department was still considering providing the second loan guarantee to the solar-panel manufacturer in April and May 2010, at a time when Solyndra's auditors were already warning that the company was in danger of collapsing."
Now, the first heads are beginning to roll. The head of the Energy Department's embattled loan program, Jonathan Silver, announced Thursday that he was stepping down amid an expanding probe of the agency's $535 million loan to a now-shuttered solar company.
Silver had been criticized by Republicans during a House subcommittee hearing three weeks ago, and White House e-mails released this week showed that officials were anxious about the loan program and whether the agency was properly monitoring it. Now Silver's boss, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, has "accepted responsibility" for the Solyndra decisions.
And it seems like every day... another Obama regime "green energy loan" goes bad.
But these are not just bad "investments" -- they're more political payoff scandals in "ECO-Scam," involving top Democrats like Senator Harry Reid and his cronies!
As we told you earlier, the LATEST Solyndra-style taxpayer ripoff scandal, according to a new report
by the New York Times, involves a "green jobs" company called
"Nevada Geothermal Power," which generates electrical power using
near-surface geothermal heat. After $79 million in loans -- and $66 million
in outright grants -- the company's own auditor has now informed us
that there are "significant doubts" about its ability to continue
operating.
That means even MORE of OUR MONEY that's been stolen from us and given to "FRIENDS OF OBAMA" -- this HAS TO STOP!
Once again, we see "green" companies getting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars when it was OBVIOUS that they couldn't succeed -- and once again, we see them getting OUR money because they have political connections to Obama and his cronies in Congress:
AND, Fox News has revealed, ANOTHER inside man on the Solyndra loan was Steve Spinner, "a former NBC executive who became a green energy guru who helped steer energy and environmental policy for the administration starting in the 2008 transition team." Spinner pushed for Solyndra to get the loan -- even though his wife was the lawyer for the now BANKRUPT solar firm!
And had you even heard that the head of the company that started the whole "ECO-SCAM" political scandal -- where big Democrat donors and buddies of Obama received HALF A BILLION DOLLARS in taxpayer-funded government loan guarantees, and then declared bankruptcy so we'd be left holding the bag -- has secretly resigned from his CEO position?
NO -- you hadn't heard that? NEITHER HAD ANYONE ELSE -- at least, until they were forced to reveal it by the Justice
Department! According to a new report by the Daily Caller, since NO ONE trusted Solyndra officials "to be forthcoming with accurate information about the company's finances," a "trustee" had to be brought in "to oversee its bankruptcy process." So, Solyndra had to file papers on response to that... and that is when we learned that Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison had "quietly resigned" LAST FRIDAY!
What we DON'T know is: HOW MUCH OF OUR TAXPAYER MONEY DID HE TAKE WITH HIM???
Obama's scandal that started with the failed Solyndra "green jobs" company is starting to look like a never-ending con game!
Now, it's been revealed that a solar company that's well-connected to Democrat leaders in Congress received a $1.2 billion loan guarantee from the taxpayers... so it could built a new manufacturing plant IN MEXICO to build the solar panels it will install at a photovoltaic ranch that will create a total of just fifteen permanent jobs!
THAT'S $80 MILLION (OF OUR MONEY) PER PERMANENT JOB -- THIS MUST BE STOPPED!
YOU READ THAT RIGHT: According to a report by Human Events, SunPower, "a failing California solar company, buffeted by short sellers and shareholder lawsuits, receive a $1.2 billion federal loan guarantee for a photovoltaic electricity ranch project -- three
weeks after it announced it was building new
manufacturing plant in Mexicali, Mexico, to build the panels for the
project." How is this possible? How about the fact that SunPower converted an old Richmond, CA, Ford plant to a panel-manufacturing facility -- in the middle of the Congressional district of Rep. George R. Miller III (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee and the co-chairman of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee?
How about the fact that his son, George Miller IV, is a lobbyist for SunPower?
How about the fact that, in the last election, SunPower's Political Action Committee (PAC) donated $4,000 to Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), $3,000 to Rep. Gabrielle Gifford (D-AZ), $2,900 Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)... and some $500 in "walking around money" to Rep. Miller?
OBAMA AND HIS CRONIES ARE RAKING IN THE DOUGH WHILE TOSSING BILLIONS IN TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO THEIR WELL-CONNECTED FRIENDS!
All of these new revelations are coming out as thousands upon thousands of your faxes keep pouring into every single office on Capitol Hill, and Congress is taking notice -- they are widening their investigation into the Solyndra scandal even more!
According to a report by CNBC, "On Wednesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee broadened its investigation into the failed solar company Solyndra, sending a letter to the White House counsel's office requesting all West Wing communications regarding the decision to use taxpayer loan guarantees to back up the clean technology firm."
On Wednesday evening the committee clarified to CNBC that it is specifically asking for the Obama regime to turn over any emails on the matter that were sent by the president himself. A White House spokesman said he believes this is the first request by an investigative body for presidential emails.
THIS IS HUGE: The committee's request calls for ALL West Wing documents, including emails, dating all the way back to Barack Hussein Obama's inauguration on January 20, 2009!
This scandal just keeps GROWING. The latest news is that Obama's buddies at the top were planning to give hundreds of millions MORE taxpayer dollars to the company that they KNEW was about to fail! The Washington Post is reporting, "Newly released e-mails show the Obama administration's Energy Department was poised to give Solyndra a second taxpayer loan of $469 million last year, even as the company's financial situation grew increasingly dire.The department was still considering providing the second loan guarantee to the solar-panel manufacturer in April and May 2010, at a time when Solyndra's auditors were already warning that the company was in danger of collapsing."
Now, the first heads are beginning to roll. The head of the Energy Department's embattled loan program, Jonathan Silver, announced Thursday that he was stepping down amid an expanding probe of the agency's $535 million loan to a now-shuttered solar company.
Silver had been criticized by Republicans during a House subcommittee hearing three weeks ago, and White House e-mails released this week showed that officials were anxious about the loan program and whether the agency was properly monitoring it. Now Silver's boss, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, has "accepted responsibility" for the Solyndra decisions.
And it seems like every day... another Obama regime "green energy loan" goes bad.
But these are not just bad "investments" -- they're more political payoff scandals in "ECO-Scam," involving top Democrats like Senator Harry Reid and his cronies!
As we told you earlier, the LATEST Solyndra-style taxpayer ripoff scandal, according to a
new report
by the New York Times, involves a "green jobs" company called
"Nevada Geothermal Power," which generates electrical power using
near-surface geothermal heat. After $79 million in loans -- and $66 million
in outright grants -- the company's own auditor has now informed us
that there are "significant doubts" about its ability to continue
operating. That means even MORE of OUR MONEY that's been stolen from us and given to "FRIENDS OF OBAMA" -- this HAS TO STOP!
Once again, we see "green" companies getting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars when it was OBVIOUS that they couldn't succeed -- and once again, we see them getting OUR money because they have political connections to Obama and his cronies in Congress:
"Reid has taken the
nascent geothermal industry under his wing, pressuring
the Department of Interior to move more quickly on applications to build clean
energy projects on federally owned land and urging other member of Congress to
expand federal tax incentives to help build geothermal plants, benefits that
Nevada Geothermal has taken advantage of...
...Reid had a chance to see electric generation equipment installed by a company called Ormat Technology, which is a Nevada Geothermal partner. Ormat's lobbyist in Washington, Kai Anderson, and one of the company's top executives, Paul Thomsen, are former aides to Mr. Reid.
Just last month, again with Mr. Reid's support, Ormat secured its own Energy Department loan guarantee, worth $350 million, to help support three other Nevada geothermal projects that are expected to produce 113 megawatts of power."
...Reid had a chance to see electric generation equipment installed by a company called Ormat Technology, which is a Nevada Geothermal partner. Ormat's lobbyist in Washington, Kai Anderson, and one of the company's top executives, Paul Thomsen, are former aides to Mr. Reid.
Just last month, again with Mr. Reid's support, Ormat secured its own Energy Department loan guarantee, worth $350 million, to help support three other Nevada geothermal projects that are expected to produce 113 megawatts of power."
THIS IS AN OUTRAGEOUS SCANDAL -- WHEN WILL THIS MADNESS STOP?
Of course, we already told you the news about who's getting the latest TAXPAYER-FUNDED PAYOFF in the ever-growing ECO-SCAM of Barack Hussein Obama's Crony Capitalism:
HEADLINE: "$737 Million Green Jobs Loan Given to Nancy Pelosi's Brother-In-Law!"
You read that right: according to a brand new report from The Weekly Standard, "Despite the growing Solyndra scandal, yesterday the Department of Energy approved $1 billion in new loans to green energy companies -- including a $737 million loan guarantee to a company known as SolarReserve...
On SolarReserve's website is a list of 'investment partners," including the "PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund (East) LLC." As blogger American Glob quickly discovered, PCG's number two is none other than "Ronald Pelosi, a San Francisco political insider and financial industry polymath who happens to be the brother-in-law of Nancy Pelosi, the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives."
THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS! DOES THE OBAMA REGIME KNOW NO SHAME???
BUT WAIT, as they say on those cheesy television commercials: THAT'S NOT ALL! One of SolarReserve's other investment partners is "Argonaut Private Equity," which also invested in the failed Solyndra company. In fact, Argonaut's Managing Director is Steve Mitchell... who also served on the Solyndra Board of Directors!
AND... YES, THERE'S MORE... a new investigation by the Daily Caller has found that in addition to the failed company Solyndra, at least four other solar panel manufacturing companies receiving in excess of $500 million in loan guarantees from the Obama administration employ executives or board members who have donated
large sums of money to Democratic campaigns!
AND... HOLD YOUR HORSES... as the end of the federal government's fiscal year looms on Friday, a NEW series of loans could be finalized amounting to more than NINE TIMES what taxpayers have already lost on the failed company Solyndra!
Companies like First Solar, SolarReserve, SunPower Corporation and Abengoa SA have already, collectively, received BILLIONS OF DOLLARS in loans through Obama administration stimulus programs to build solar power plants in the southwestern United States.
But except for the privately held SolarReserve, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM has seen its stock price hammered at the same time it was lobbying the Obama administration and Congress for billions in loan guarantees!
The American people just lost a half billion dollars -- don't they deserve a DEEP AND THOROUGH INVESTIGATION INTO OBAMA REGIME CORRUPTION before more money is wasted???
It was just last week that we told you about the HALF A BILLION DOLLARS in taxpayer money that Barack Hussein Obama gave to his friends at the now-bankrupt "solar energy" company called Solyndra.
That's right -- HALF A BILLION DOLLARS, part of the Obama regime's "stimulus package," was wasted on his liberal friends... or, to put it more clearly, it has now been FLUSHED DOWN THE TOILET.
But it gets WORSE -- it's starting to become obvious
that the Obama White House RUSHED the loan approval through from the Energy
Department because... wait for it... one of the largest private
investors in the deal, Oklahoma billionaire George Kaiser, was also a prominent fundraiser for Obama's 2008
presidential campaign (and a frequent visitor to the White House!),
and Solyndra's board and investors included some major campaign donors to Democrats and Obama!
The Daily Caller goes on to report just how deep this rabbit hole is going:
Of course, we already told you the news about who's getting the latest TAXPAYER-FUNDED PAYOFF in the ever-growing ECO-SCAM of Barack Hussein Obama's Crony Capitalism:
HEADLINE: "$737 Million Green Jobs Loan Given to Nancy Pelosi's Brother-In-Law!"
You read that right: according to a brand new report from The Weekly Standard, "Despite the growing Solyndra scandal, yesterday the Department of Energy approved $1 billion in new loans to green energy companies -- including a $737 million loan guarantee to a company known as SolarReserve...
On SolarReserve's website is a list of 'investment partners," including the "PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund (East) LLC." As blogger American Glob quickly discovered, PCG's number two is none other than "Ronald Pelosi, a San Francisco political insider and financial industry polymath who happens to be the brother-in-law of Nancy Pelosi, the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives."
THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS! DOES THE OBAMA REGIME KNOW NO SHAME???
BUT WAIT, as they say on those cheesy television commercials: THAT'S NOT ALL! One of SolarReserve's other investment partners is "Argonaut Private Equity," which also invested in the failed Solyndra company. In fact, Argonaut's Managing Director is Steve Mitchell... who also served on the Solyndra Board of Directors!
AND... YES, THERE'S MORE... a new investigation by the Daily Caller has found that in addition to the failed company Solyndra, at least four other solar panel manufacturing companies receiving in excess of $500 million in loan guarantees from the Obama administration
employ executives or board members who have donated
large sums of money to Democratic campaigns! AND... HOLD YOUR HORSES... as the end of the federal government's fiscal year looms on Friday, a NEW series of loans could be finalized amounting to more than NINE TIMES what taxpayers have already lost on the failed company Solyndra!
Companies like First Solar, SolarReserve, SunPower Corporation and Abengoa SA have already, collectively, received BILLIONS OF DOLLARS in loans through Obama administration stimulus programs to build solar power plants in the southwestern United States.
But except for the privately held SolarReserve, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM has seen its stock price hammered at the same time it was lobbying the Obama administration and Congress for billions in loan guarantees!
The American people just lost a half billion dollars -- don't they deserve a DEEP AND THOROUGH INVESTIGATION INTO OBAMA REGIME CORRUPTION before more money is wasted???
It was just last week that we told you about the HALF A BILLION DOLLARS in taxpayer money that Barack Hussein Obama gave to his friends at the now-bankrupt "solar energy" company called Solyndra.
That's right -- HALF A BILLION DOLLARS, part of the Obama regime's "stimulus package," was wasted on his liberal friends... or, to put it more clearly, it has now been FLUSHED DOWN THE TOILET.
But it gets WORSE -- it's starting to become obvious
that the Obama White House RUSHED the loan approval through from the Energy
Department because... wait for it... one of the largest private
investors in the deal, Oklahoma billionaire George Kaiser, was also a prominent fundraiser for Obama's 2008
presidential campaign (and a frequent visitor to the White House!),
and Solyndra's board and investors included some major campaign donors to Democrats and Obama!
The Daily Caller goes on to report just how deep this rabbit hole is going:
Additionally, Federal
Election Commission records made available by the Center for Responsive
Politics show that SolarReserve board member James McDermott has contributed
$61,500 to various Democratic campaigns since 2008, including $30,800 to
Obama's presidential election campaign.
McDermott's U.S. Renewable Energy Group has a significant financial stake in SolarReserve, and has drawn scrutiny for its ties with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- and for reportedly driving green jobs to China.
And Lee Bailey, a fellow SolarReserve board member and U.S. Renewables Group investor, has donated $21,850 since 2008 to Democratic candidates including President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, California Sen. Barbara Boxer and then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
McDermott's U.S. Renewable Energy Group has a significant financial stake in SolarReserve, and has drawn scrutiny for its ties with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- and for reportedly driving green jobs to China.
And Lee Bailey, a fellow SolarReserve board member and U.S. Renewables Group investor, has donated $21,850 since 2008 to Democratic candidates including President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, California Sen. Barbara Boxer and then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
And
that's not the only connection: the Daily Caller is even reporting
that there is a connection between Solyndra and Michelle Obama, too!
Their review of the George Kaiser Family Foundation's income tax returns found
that during the same year billionaire investor George Kaiser successfully
secured $535 million in government loan guarantees for the now-failed solar
panel manufacturer Solyndra, his private philanthropy donated to a political
cause close to the hearts of several high-ranking Obama administration
officials:
A $10,000 donation to the
Urban Health Initiative at the University of Chicago Medical Center appears on the group's 2009 tax forms. It was also
in 2009 that Kaiser successfully sought to lock down a loan guarantee for the
green-energy company Solyndra through his two investment vehicles: Argonaut
Ventures and the GKFF Investment Company.
While this donation seems small compared to the far larger numbers involved in the Solyndra scandal, it adds to the pattern of possible connections between the Obama administration and the growing Solyndra scandal.
Several of President Barack Obama's senior inner-circle advisers worked with or for now-first lady Michelle Obama when she held a leadership post at the University of Chicago Medical Center and helped create the Urban Health Initiative program. The Washington Post reported in 2008 that Valerie Jarrett was the medical center's chairwoman, and David Axelrod provided community support-building services.
"One of Barack's best friends, Eric Whitaker, is executive vice president at the center and is now in charge of the Urban Health Initiative," the Post added in the year Obama was elected to the presidency. Whitaker is still in that role today.
While this donation seems small compared to the far larger numbers involved in the Solyndra scandal, it adds to the pattern of possible connections between the Obama administration and the growing Solyndra scandal.
Several of President Barack Obama's senior inner-circle advisers worked with or for now-first lady Michelle Obama when she held a leadership post at the University of Chicago Medical Center and helped create the Urban Health Initiative program. The Washington Post reported in 2008 that Valerie Jarrett was the medical center's chairwoman, and David Axelrod provided community support-building services.
"One of Barack's best friends, Eric Whitaker, is executive vice president at the center and is now in charge of the Urban Health Initiative," the Post added in the year Obama was elected to the presidency. Whitaker is still in that role today.
THIS IS
OUTRAGEOUS... and it just KEEPS GROWING!
According to an article in USA Today, "In March 2010, the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers issued a standard but stern warning about Solyndra, a California solar panel manufacturer: The company wasn't making money and never had, which raised ‘substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.'"
In fact, their business plan was so obviously bad, that less than two weeks before President George W. Bush left office, on January 9, 2009, the Energy Department's credit committee made a unanimous decision NOT to offer a loan commitment to Solyndra.
Peter Lynch, a New York-based solar energy analyst, told
ABC News that it took only "a cursory glance" through Solyndra's
prospectus to see there was a problem
with their numbers. "It's very difficult to perceive a
company with a model that says, well, I can build something for six dollars and
sell it for three dollars," Lynch said. "Those numbers don't
generally work. You don't want to lose
three dollars for every unit you make."
But Solyndra was run by "Friends Of Obama" and their business was located in Fremont, California (which voted 71 percent for Obama in 2008) -- so the Obama regime made SURE that they got their stimulus loan after all!
IT'S ALL STARTING TO COME OUT. The Washington Post is now reporting that "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 August 2009 e-mails 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.
In fact, in August 2009, e-mail exchanges between Energy Department staff members pointed out that a credit-rating agency predicted that the project would run out of cash in September 2011. Solyndra shut its doors on the final day of August.
$535 BILLION OF TAXPAYER MONEY THROWN AWAY ON A "FRIENDS OF OBAMA" SOLAR COMPANY THAT EVERYONE KNEW WOULD FAIL --
THAT DEMANDS AN INVESTIGATION -- AND POLITICAL HEADS NEED TO ROLL!
Thankfully, even before Rep. Issa began his new investigation that was just announced, there were Members of Congress who had already begun an initial investigation into this matter -- but now that MORE facts are coming out about the connections between the Obama regime and their FRIENDS at Solyndra, MORE MUST BE DONE -- QUICKLY.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee has been investigating Solyndra's dealings with the Energy Department for six months -- even BEFORE they shut down. InJuly, subcommittee members subpoenaed White House
documents related to the guarantee.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), chairman of that panel's oversight and investigations subcommittee, said that the FBI raid confirmed their belief that the "darling" of Obama's green-jobs program -- which we OBVIOSLY a bad idea -- was a "bad bet" from the beginning. "Solyndra was the hallmark of the President's green jobs program and widely promoted by the administration as a stimulus success story, right up until its bankruptcy and FBI raid," Upton and Stearns said in a statement.
On Aug. 31, while Obama was vacationing on Martha's Vineyard, Solyndra filed for bankruptcy. When Solyndra abruptly shuttered its factory and filed for bankruptcy court protection at the end of August, they left 1,100 people out of work and taxpayers on the hook for half a billion dollars in loans. On Sept. 8, the day of Obama's "American Jobs Act" speech to a joint session of Congress, FBI agents conducted searches of Solyndra's headquarters and the homes of the firm's CEO and founder, in a raid that appears linked to the loan guarantee.
THIS IS WHAT WE GET when the government tries to decide what's "good" economically, instead of letting the free market decide. It's also what we get when a corrupt administration is able to push hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars out the door to its politically-connected friends, fundraisers, and donors.
As columnist Michael Barone noted, this thing is HUGE. It's "a scandal -- the scandal of the government handing out hundreds of millions of dollars to unproven and speculative businesses. Even the shrewdest venture capitalists lose money on most of their investments. But when they lose, it's their money, not ours."
But even Wall Street loves to "partner" with the government, when it means they can make BIG BUCKS off of the backs of the taxpayers. After all, who was the exclusive financial adviser to Solyndra when it was trying to secure the $535 million loan from Washington? The government-bailed-out investment banking and securities firm, Goldman Sachs. As Reuters columnist James Pethokoukis notes, "had the cap-and-trade scheme been enacted, big banks stood ready to reap billions from the trading of carbon emission credits."
And, as Barone went on to note, "the real scandal is the "green jobs" loan guarantee program itself." IT'S A SOCIALIST CON GAME, and the scandal is still going on. The Energy Department has been busy beavers, handing out even MORE loan guarantees JUST LIKE TO SOLYNDRA in the past few weeks -- $150 MILLION in taxpayer money to "1366 Technologies" (of Lexington, Massachusetts, which voted 73 percent for Obama in 2008)... $275 MILLION in taxpayer money to "Solar City" (of San Mateo, California, which voted 72 percent for Obama in 2008)...
Which one of them will be the next Solyndra?
According to an article in USA Today, "In March 2010, the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers issued a standard but stern warning about Solyndra, a California solar panel manufacturer: The company wasn't making money and never had, which raised ‘substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.'"
In fact, their business plan was so obviously bad, that less than two weeks before President George W. Bush left office, on January 9, 2009, the Energy Department's credit committee made a unanimous decision NOT to offer a loan commitment to Solyndra.
Peter Lynch, a New York-based solar energy analyst, told
ABC News that it took only "a cursory glance" through Solyndra's
prospectus to see there was a problem
with their numbers. "It's very difficult to perceive a
company with a model that says, well, I can build something for six dollars and
sell it for three dollars," Lynch said. "Those numbers don't
generally work. You don't want to lose
three dollars for every unit you make." But Solyndra was run by "Friends Of Obama" and their business was located in Fremont, California (which voted 71 percent for Obama in 2008) -- so the Obama regime made SURE that they got their stimulus loan after all!
IT'S ALL STARTING TO COME OUT. The Washington Post is now reporting that "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 August 2009 e-mails 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.
In fact, in August 2009, e-mail exchanges between Energy Department staff members pointed out that a credit-rating agency predicted that the project would run out of cash in September 2011. Solyndra shut its doors on the final day of August.
$535 BILLION OF TAXPAYER MONEY THROWN AWAY ON A "FRIENDS OF OBAMA" SOLAR COMPANY THAT EVERYONE KNEW WOULD FAIL --
THAT DEMANDS AN INVESTIGATION -- AND POLITICAL HEADS NEED TO ROLL!
Thankfully, even before Rep. Issa began his new investigation that was just announced, there were Members of Congress who had already begun an initial investigation into this matter -- but now that MORE facts are coming out about the connections between the Obama regime and their FRIENDS at Solyndra, MORE MUST BE DONE -- QUICKLY.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee has been investigating Solyndra's dealings with the Energy Department for six months -- even BEFORE they shut down. In
July, subcommittee members subpoenaed White House
documents related to the guarantee. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), chairman of that panel's oversight and investigations subcommittee, said that the FBI raid confirmed their belief that the "darling" of Obama's green-jobs program -- which we OBVIOSLY a bad idea -- was a "bad bet" from the beginning. "Solyndra was the hallmark of the President's green jobs program and widely promoted by the administration as a stimulus success story, right up until its bankruptcy and FBI raid," Upton and Stearns said in a statement.
On Aug. 31, while Obama was vacationing on Martha's Vineyard, Solyndra filed for bankruptcy. When Solyndra abruptly shuttered its factory and filed for bankruptcy court protection at the end of August, they left 1,100 people out of work and taxpayers on the hook for half a billion dollars in loans. On Sept. 8, the day of Obama's "American Jobs Act" speech to a joint session of Congress, FBI agents conducted searches of Solyndra's headquarters and the homes of the firm's CEO and founder, in a raid that appears linked to the loan guarantee.
THIS IS WHAT WE GET when the government tries to decide what's "good" economically, instead of letting the free market decide. It's also what we get when a corrupt administration is able to push hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars out the door to its politically-connected friends, fundraisers, and donors.
As columnist Michael Barone noted, this thing is HUGE. It's "a scandal -- the scandal of the government handing out hundreds of millions of dollars to unproven and speculative businesses. Even the shrewdest venture capitalists lose money on most of their investments. But when they lose, it's their money, not ours."
But even Wall Street loves to "partner" with the government, when it means they can make BIG BUCKS off of the backs of the taxpayers. After all, who was the exclusive financial adviser to Solyndra when it was trying to secure the $535 million loan from Washington? The government-bailed-out investment banking and securities firm, Goldman Sachs. As Reuters columnist James Pethokoukis notes, "had the cap-and-trade scheme been enacted, big banks stood ready to reap billions from the trading of carbon emission credits."
And, as Barone went on to note, "the real scandal is the "green jobs" loan guarantee program itself." IT'S A SOCIALIST CON GAME, and the scandal is still going on. The Energy Department has been busy beavers, handing out even MORE loan guarantees JUST LIKE TO SOLYNDRA in the past few weeks -- $150 MILLION in taxpayer money to "1366 Technologies" (of Lexington, Massachusetts, which voted 73 percent for Obama in 2008)... $275 MILLION in taxpayer money to "Solar City" (of San Mateo, California, which voted 72 percent for Obama in 2008)...
Which one of them will be the next Solyndra?
Monday, October 24, 2011
Congress Moves Closer
Congress Moves Closer to Restoring a Key Second Amendment Freedom
By Chris W. Cox 10/24/2011
Thanks to the good work of millions of American gun owners
and NRA members, Congress is moving closer to restoring one of our fundamental
freedoms guaranteed by the Second Amendment.
Some members of the Committee tried to weaken the bill with anti-gun amendments, and I’m happy to report that every one of them failed. The committee is expected to pass the bill soon, after which it will go before the full House for a vote.
As of today, 49 states have laws in place that permit their citizens to carry a concealed firearm in some form or another. Only Illinois completely denies its residents the right to carry a concealed firearm outside their homes or businesses for self-defense, an injustice for which President Obama fought hard when he was an Illinois state senator.
In 41 of these 49 states, law-abiding citizens can carry a firearm without having to navigate an overly restrictive bureaucratic process.
The problem is that some states allow visiting permit holders from other states to exercise their right to carry, and some states do not. As you can imagine, this presents a nightmare for interstate travel, as many Americans are forced to check their Second Amendment rights, and their fundamental right to self-defense, at the state line.
The National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act would solve this problem by simply requiring states that allow concealed carry to recognize each other’s permits. Nothing more.
Predictably, gun-ban organizations like the Brady Campaign and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s deceptively named “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” are doing everything they can to demonize H.R. 822, as are their allies in the anti-gun media.
First, they tried to scare Americans into thinking that H.R. 822 would unleash a new “wild west” atmosphere in the United States. This tactic fell flat because nearly every state in the nation already allows concealed carry and none of these outlandish predictions have materialized. In fact, quite the opposite has occurred.
On average, the 41 states that have the most tolerant right-to-carry laws have 22 percent lower total violent crime rates, 30 percent lower murder rates, 46 percent lower robbery rates and 12 percent lower aggravated assault rates, compared to the rest of the country. This is likely due to the fact that, as a group, citizens with permits to carry a firearm are more law-abiding than the general public.
Having failed at scaring Americans, the gun banners are now falling back on the Tenth Amendment as their main argument against H.R. 822. It’s a poorly conceived argument, as you might expect from groups that spend the majority of their time trying to trample the same “states’ rights” that they now want to hold up as sacrosanct.
The fact is the Tenth Amendment is most certainly sacrosanct – that’s why, in the 1990s, the NRA supported a successful constitutional challenge to provisions of the Brady Act that violated it. But the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act doesn’t violate the Tenth Amendment. Rather, the Act recognizes that the Second Amendment guarantees the fundamental, individual right of every law-abiding citizen to bear arms for safety when traveling.
This is an inalienable right that neither the federal government, nor any state government, may infringe upon. In addition, the 14th Amendment gives Congress the power to protect us from states that infringe on our inalienable, constitutional rights.
By the way, these are the same gun-ban groups that don’t give any consideration to states’ rights when they lobby for sweeping federal gun bans, ammunition bans, and magazine bans.
NRA has made the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act a top priority because it restores a fundamental, inalienable right guaranteed to all law-abiding Americans by the Second Amendment. All Second Amendment advocates, gun owners and pro-gun groups should be campaigning for the passage of this bill.
Also, as a general rule, no one should ever take seriously any lessons on constitutional law from groups whose sole mission is to destroy our most basic civil right guaranteed in the Constitution: The right to bear arms and defend ourselves and our loved ones…no matter which state we’re in.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Are “Occupiers” Like the Tea Party?
A couple weeks ago I posted this blog comparing the Tea
Party Movement to the Occupy Wall Street protest.
Here is a video that does a much better job illustrating my
point. WATCH THE VIDEO
Like one of the comments after the video says:
Occupy Wall Street is like the Tea Party the same way
Gadaffi was like Ronald Reagan.
How Intelligent is our Intelligence?
During the Cold War, America faced an implacable enemy, driven by a supremacist ideology that called for, among other things, the use of an array of covert front groups, stealthy techniques and subversive activities to achieve our destruction. For many years, our effort to defeat Soviet Communism featured a concerted counter-intelligence effort aimed at achieving that defeat.
Déjà vu, America once again faces an implacable enemy, driven by a supremacist ideology that calls for, among other things, the use of an array of covert front groups, stealthy techniques and subversive activities to achieve our destruction. This time, in the place of the Soviet Union and the influence operations run by its intelligence service, the KGB, we confront the Islamic doctrine known as Sharia and the Muslim Brotherhood, which serves as the principal engine for extending its reach.
Now, it seems to me, that we have no counter-intelligence effort comparable to that of the Cold War or remotely commensurate with today’s threat. Indeed, based on the evidence of the successful penetration and influence operations being run by the Muslim Brotherhood these days, one would be tempted to conclude that counter-intelligence has effectively ceased to be part of our toolkit in keeping America safe and free.
Here are a few examples I find worrisome:
When President Obama engaged in his “outreach to the Muslim world” at the State Department a few months ago, seated in the front row next to the Secretary of State was Imam Mohammed Magid. Magid happens to be the president of the largest Muslim Brotherhood organization in the country, the Islamic Society of North America.
Also, the White House insisted that the Muslim Brotherhood representatives be included in the audience during the President’s Cairo 2009 address. The message could not be any clearer: Far from perceiving the Brotherhood as what it is - an organization determined to destroy the United States and the rest of the Free World - the Obama administration sees them as reliable partners.
That message was again reinforced when, senior U.S. government officials sat down with an assortment of Muslim Brotherhood operatives and groups under the auspices of the Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Bin Talal - a major benefactor of Brotherhood causes and enabler of its own and similar Islamist influence operations - endowed his center at Georgetown University with a gift of $20 million. The investment is paying handsome dividends as it affords the Brotherhood a vehicle for using “interfaith dialogue” as a means of legitimating and promoting its personnel and agendas.
I’m sure you remember Rep. Anthony Weiner, (he’s the one that posted a picture of his wiener on the internet). I think the most astonishing revelation to come out of Weiner’s public meltdown was the fact that his wife, Huma Abedin, a member of a prominent Muslim Brotherhood family in Egypt, happens to be Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff.
I recently discovered that part of the job of performing background checks for U.S. security clearances has been contracted out to companies instructed to help clean up the serious backlog. According to employees, they are given quotas of cases to process with one company requiring as many as twenty per day. Does anyone seriously believe that this is a formula for properly vetting personnel?
Can we possibly hope to survive our time’s ideologically-driven subversion - let alone prevail over it - if we systematically disregard the threat its supporters pose here at home? We need to revive the sort of serious counter-intelligence capability and practice that we have employed to great effect in the past. Continuing to do otherwise is to invite, if not assure, our destruction.
The better our intelligence and counter-intelligence is
today, the fewer “boots on the ground” required in the future.
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Saturday, October 22, 2011
SOCIALISM FOR DUMMIES
This post it dedicated to the “wall
street protesters”
"Socialism
is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its
inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” -- Winston Churchill
The following five sentences explain the Churchill quote for those of you who still don’t get it. Unfortunately, far too many voters in this country and around the world really don’t get it.
The following five sentences explain the Churchill quote for those of you who still don’t get it. Unfortunately, far too many voters in this country and around the world really don’t get it.
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the wealth out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them; and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work, because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.
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