Don’t Blame Him — He’s Only the President… “Conservatives have been unfair to Barack Obama. They blame him for all sorts of things. But it’s never his fault. Just ask him.”

Don’t Blame Him — He’s Only the President

 

bernardgoldberg.com ^ | March 14, 2013 | Bernard Goldberg

 

Posted on Thursday, March 28, 2013 7:57:16 AM by SJackson

 

English: Barack Obama delivers a speech at the University of Southern California (Video of the speech) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

Conservatives have been unfair to Barack Obama. They blame him for all sorts of things. But it’s never his fault. Just ask him.

 

The economy? We all know that was Bush’s fault.

 

The fact that millions of Americans are still out of work, the lucky ones settling for part-time jobs? Hey, he’s president not a magician!

 

(Gunny G: The “Accidental” Congressman…) ~ Broun to Announce Run for Chambliss Senate Seat (Another Tea Party favorite Rove will try to defeat)

Tea party favorite Paul Broun, who has served in the House of Representatives since 2007, is expected to announce a run to take Saxby Chambliss’ seat in the U.S. Senate.

 

obampoint (Photo credit: GunnyG1345)

 

He is due to make a formal announcement Wednesday afternoon at Atlanta’s Grand Hyatt Hotel. Chambliss announced last month that he will not run for a third term, after tea party threats that the group would put up candidates to run against him in a Republican primary.

 

rprprprp (Photo credit: GunnyG1345)

 

 

 

Since getting to Congress, Broun, 66, a general practice physician, has been an outspoken critic of many current federal policies. For example, he has criticized President Barack Obama’s administration for what he calls “stifling the private sector with regulation.”

 

GREEN SCAM: 80% Of Green Energy Loans Went To Obama Donors – 19 Companies Went Bust

For those who only hear about these failing companies one by one, the following is a list of all the clean energy companies supported by President Obama’s stimulus that are now failing or have filed for bankruptcy. The liberal media hopes you’ve forgotten about all of them except Solyndra, but we haven’t.

America’s coming civil war — makers vs. takers

English: Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States. Latviešu: Abrahams Linkolns, sešpadsmitais ASV prezidents. Српски / Srpski: Абрахам Линколн, шеснаести председник Сједињених Америчких Држава. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

America‘s coming civil war — makers vs. takers

Fox News ^ | 7-12-12 | Arthur Herman

Posted on Thursday, July 12, 2012 6:03:02 PM by dynachrome

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Those were Abe Lincoln’s words in his first inaugural in 1861, as America was running headlong into civil war. Now we’re a house divided again and another civil war is coming, with the 2012 election as its Gettysburg.

Call it America’s coming civil war between the Makers and the Takers.

On one side are those who create wealth, America’s private sector–the very ones targeted by President Obama’s tax hikes announced Monday.

On the other are the public employee unions; left-leaning intelligentsia who see the growth of government as index of progress; and the millions of Americans now dependent on government through a growing network of government transfer payments, from Medicaid and Social Security to college loans and corporate bailouts and handouts (think GM and Solyndra).

The President Flouts The Law [His Action Shows "Contempt For Our Laws"]

takethngsawayfryou (Photo credit: GunnyG1345)

isdees (Photo credit: GunnyG1345)

The President Flouts The Law By Ed Rogers

Apparently, there are no limits to what the president will do to get himself reelected. There is evidence that he will manipulate the law in favor of pet causes and supporters, as in the case of Solyndra.

His administration might be guilty of breaking the law, as shown by the leaks of classified national security information. And now, President Obama holds himself above the law on immigration.

 

Today’s executive order, granting work permits and immunity from deportation to young illegal immigrants, is not an example of the president using his authority; it’s a scandal involving the president performing a selfish act in furtherance of currying favor with a special-interest group.

 

Obama Admin ‘Most Corrupt Government In History’

Barack Obama delivers a speech at the University of Southern California (Video of the speech) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Obama Admin ‘Most Corrupt Government In History’

breitbart.com ^ | April 26 2012 | breitbart.com

Posted on Thursday, April 26, 2012 8:13:24 PM by NoLibZone

http://bloom.bg/JWe7M2

“We are busy in Washington with a corrupt government, with a government that I said perhaps because of the money, the amount of TARP and stimulus funds, was going to be the most corrupt government history and it is proving to be just exactly that. This money going though the hands of political leaders is corrupting the process, whether it is Solyndra, GSA, or a number of other scandals. Our mandate is to go after the wrongful acts of government or to review for reorganization laws already passed.”

Morning Bell: Obama Mocks Critics As Gas Prices Go Up

BARACK OBAMA SHOWS HIS TRUE SELF MORE EACH AND EVERY DAY.............ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION AMERICA...... TO WHAT THIS MAN TRULY IS AND STANDS FOR AND WHAT HE'S DOING TO OUR COUNTRY? (Photo credit: SS&SS)

As you drive America’s ribbon of highway, from California to the New York island, there’s one reality that can’t be escaped — gas prices keep going up, with no end in sight. But instead of taking action to bring relief to the American people, the Obama Administration is patting itself on the back for a job well done while mocking those who are calling for a commonsense energy policy.

This week saw the highest average gas price ever recorded in March — a whopping $3.87 per gallon. That’s up 4 cents from over a week ago, and 30 cents more than last year. On the West Coast, it’s up to $4.23 a gallon, but no matter where you go in America, you’ll feel the burn.

Meanwhile, the President is still beating the drums for his energy strategy, which he highlighted yesterday in a visit to the Copper Mountain Solar 1 Facility in Boulder City, Nevada. Anticipating the obvious criticism — that his investment in the Solyndra solar plant went belly up, costing American taxpayers $535 million — the President mocked those who question his ideas, saying they “lack imagination,” and he turned to name calling in order to deflect legitimate concerns about the viability of his green pipe dream and the fact that it has not produced the jobs that he promised:

One member of Congress who shall remain unnamed called these jobs ‘phony’ — called them phony jobs. I mean, think about that mindset, that attitude that says because something is new, it must not be real. If these guys were around when Columbus set sail, they’d be charter members of the Flat Earth Society.

But as Heritage’s Nick Loris points out, those who criticize the President’s policies aren’t opposed to new ideas. The Administration’s record of burning billions in taxpayer dollars to somehow transition America to a new energy economy have not produced results that earn confidence. The American people’s money is being used to offset private-sector investments and artificially prop up industries until they go bankrupt, like Solyndra, Beacon, Ener1, Abound, and so on. Only when technologies such as solar, wind, and biofuels become affordable and reliable will consumers embrace them.

While the President is out West selling his spending and tax hikes, back home in Washington his Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, is giving himself kudos for a job well done. In testimony before Congress this week, Chu was asked whether he would give himself an “A minus” on controlling the cost of gasoline. His response? “I would I say I would give myself a little higher in that since I became Secretary of Energy, I’ve been doing everything I can to get long-term solutions.” For the record, this is the same Steven Chu who said, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe” (which are routinely above $8 per gallon). Perhaps in that context, he does deserve an “A.”

Obama’s failed energy policies (Obama said he wants higher gas prices)

President Obama has serious energy problems — ranging from high gasoline prices, which torment consumers and affect the lifestyle of American families; to Solyndra and the like, where green-energy initiatives have failed to the point where they are not just failures but introduce questions of cover-up and deception within the administration.

Obama must also deal with division among Democrats with regard to drilling and doing something affirmative to bring down gasoline prices. No one’s talking about it yet, but Obama also appears to be fulfilling his campaign promise to drive up home power bills by aggressively regulating America’s industries that produce electricity.

It will be difficult for Obama to escape his positions, which are heavily rooted in ideology.

‘Agenders’ and Right Wing Conspirators

A recent article in the Atlantic Monthly, “Is the UN Using Bike Paths to Achieve World Domination?” by Andrew Cohen, drew my intense attention. It was not because I particularly cared for the author’s writings. It was his vitriolic description of people who oppose ICLEI and the United Nations-driven “sustainability initiatives” regarding land use in the United States as “right wing conspiracy theories,” promoted by “Agenders.”

Cohen calls ordinary American citizens who oppose the UN Agenda 21’s goals “Agenders,” people who object to “sustainable land uses” not on the merits of the plans themselves but on the basis that they are “beyond the realm of mainstream political thought.” In progressive language, “mainstream” is what they believe in and wish to impose on the rest of society because they are smarter and we are the dumb masses who can be manipulated by a Gaia-worshipping environmentalist minority.

Cohen continues, “the loudest argument is the most bizarre…a vast international conspiracy, orchestrated by the United Nations, which would ultimately result in international domination over the way Americans both live and breathe.” He paints the majority of Americans as Agenders who are not interested in sanitation, biodiversity, “sustainable growth,” renewable energy, and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. According to Cohen, Americans want their constitutional rights “to rape the land, foul the air, dirty the water, and sprawl development wherever the hell they feel like it.”

JUDGE SUBPOENAS OBAMA AND MULTIPLE DOCUMENTS

JUDGE SUBPOENAS OBAMA AND MULTIPLE DOCUMENTS

politicalvelcraft ^ | 14 Jan 2012 | Volubrjotr

Posted on Monday, January 16, 2012 9:46:53 AM by WellyP

“…Georgia Judge has issued a subpoena demanding Barack Obama appear in court January 26 AND produce his original long form birth certificate, passport records, collegeregistration records and more…”

Throw Out the Entire D.C. Establishment

Throw Out the Entire D.C. Establishment

American Thinker via Real Clear Politics ^ | December 28, 2011 | J.R. Dunn

Posted on Thursday, December 29, 2011 3:08:33 AM by neverdem

Crony capitalism is the most serious current danger to the American community, a threat not simply to government or the economy, but to our very way of life. It is the worst such threat since the trusts and monopolies of the early 20th century, and in much the same way. Cronyism is one of the major forces behind the establishment of the corrupt pseudo-aristocracy that has been taking shape in this country over the past two decades, a synthetic privileged class made up in large part of politicians, hustlers, and hangers-on who have become expert in exploiting the rest of us.

The legacy media, for some obscure reason, tends to bury discussions about this group. While the reportage on discrete incidents is there — see the parade of stories on Solyndra, Goldman Sachs, and MF Global for examples — we find little effort to pull it all together. Academics, with the single exception of Angelo Codevilla, who sounded the alarm two years ago in The Ruling Class, appear oblivious, as if they had no idea what’s going on, which may well be the case.

Throw ‘Em All Out…And Good Riddance!

Throw ‘Em All Out…And Good Riddance!

American Thinker ^ | December 28, 2011 | J.R. Dunn

Posted on Wednesday, December 28, 2011 8:21:21 AM by radioone

Crony capitalism is the most serious current danger to the American community, a threat not simply to government or the economy, but to our very way of life. It is the worst such threat since the trusts and monopolies of the early 20th century, and in much the same way. Cronyism is one of the major forces behind the establishment of the corrupt pseudo-aristocracy that has been taking shape in this country over the past two decades, a synthetic privileged class made up in large part of politicians, hustlers, and hangers-on who have become expert in exploiting the rest of us.

The legacy media, for some obscure reason, tends to bury discussions about this group. While the reportage on discrete incidents is there — see the parade of stories on Solyndra, Goldman Sachs, and MF Global for examples — we find little effort to pull it all together. Academics, with the single exception of Angelo Codevilla, who sounded the alarm two years ago in The Ruling Class, appear oblivious, as if they had no idea what’s going on, which may well be the case.

Obama’s Labor Department Approves Deal Giving Ex-Solyndra Staff $13,000 Each In Federal Aid

Obama‘s Labor Department Approves Deal Giving Ex-SolyndraStaff $13,000 Each In Federal Aid

Image via Wikipedia

Fox Nation ^ | 11/21/2011 | Sean Higgins

Posted on Monday, November 21, 2011 7:54:01 PM by txroadkill

The Labor Department today announced that it had approved Trade Adjustment Assistance for the former employees of the bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra.

That means all of the firm’s 1,100 ex-employees are eligible for federal aid packages, including job retraining and income assistance. The department has valued packages at about $13,000 a head.

Energy Secretary Chu likely to survive Solyndra (Even after stealing billions from taxpayers)

Energy Secretary Chu likely to survive Solyndra (Even after stealing billions from taxpayers)

reuters ^ | 11/18/2011 | Roberta Rampton and Ayesha Rascoe

Posted on Saturday, November 19, 2011 12:17:47 PM by tobyhill

Energy Secretary Steven Chu is taking the heat for government decisions on Solyndra, but he is unlikely to take the fall for taxpayer losses on a $535 million loan guarantee to the failed solar company.

Chu will likely keep his job, unless damning new details come to light in several parallel investigations into Solyndra.

Charles Krauthammer: The Pipeline Sellout – Obama puts politics over nation, again.

Charles Krauthammer: The Pipeline Sellout – Obama puts politics over nation, again.

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE ^ | November 18, 2011 | Charles Krauthammer

Posted on Friday, November 18, 2011 3:08:31 PM by neverdem

The Pipeline Sellout

Obama puts politics over nation, again.

In 2008, the slogan was “Yes We Can.” For 2011–12, it’s “We Can’t Wait.” What happened in between? Candidate Obama, the vessel into which myriad dreams were poured, met the reality of governance.

His near–$1 trillion stimulus begat a stagnant economy with 9 percent unemployment. His attempt at Wall Street reform left in place a still too-big-to-fail financial system as vulnerable today as when he came into office. His green-energy fantasies yielded Solyndra cronyism and a cap-and-trade regime not even a Democratic Congress would pass.

And now his signature achievement, Obamacare, is headed to the Supreme Court, where it could very well be struck down, just a week after its central element was overwhelmingly repudiated (2–1) by the good burghers of Ohio.

So what do you do when you say you can, but, it turns out, you can’t? Blame the other guy. Charge the Republicans with making governing impossible. Never mind that you had control of the Congress for two-thirds of your current tenure. It’s all the fault of Republican rejectionism.

The Great Stonewall of Obama

The Great Stonewall of Obama

Townhall.com ^ | November 9, 2011 | Michelle Malkin

Posted on Wednesday, November 09, 2011 7:21:50 AM by Kaslin

The White House laments that America hasn’t built enough massive government infrastructure projects. Nonsense. At the rate it’s growing, the Great Stonewall of Obama may soon be the second largest manmade object visible from outer space.

While many construction workers across the country remain idle, Team Obama’s attorneys have been laboring overtime to erect impenetrable information blockades around three festering scandals: Solyndra, LightSquared, and Fast and Furious.

This much is clear: The “most transparent administration ever” is hyper-allergic to sunlight and subpoenas.

During another trademark Friday news dump, the White House revealed that it would fight a GOP House subpoena for internal documents related to the half-trillion-dollar, stimulus-funded, now-bankrupt Solyndra solar energy loan bust. White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler fumed that the information request placed an “unreasonable burden on the president’s ability to meet his constitutional duties.” (Said duties, it should be noted, which the president has had no qualms circumventing during his “We Can’t Wait” orgy of executive orders.)

Is Fred Upton Now Protecting Solyndra Lawbreaking Done Under ‘Executive Privilege?’

Is Fred Upton Now Protecting Solyndra Lawbreaking Done Under ‘Executive Privilege?’

http://www.conservativehq.com/article/5325-fred-upton-now-protecting-solyndra-
lawbreaking-done-under-%E2%80%98executive-privilege%E2%80%99 ^

Posted on Tuesday, November 08, 2011 5:46:42 AM by chessplayer

Executive privilege claim ahead on Solyndra

Executive privilege claim ahead on Solyndra

Washington Examiner ^ | 11/7/11 | Gene Healy

Posted on Monday, November 07, 2011 8:37:53 PM by Nachum

On Friday, citing “longstanding and important Executive Branch confidentiality interests,” White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler refused a House panel’s demand for “all communications among White House staff and officials” relating to Solyndra.

Solyndra is one of the administration’s pet “green energy” firms. It received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy before its top executives took the Fifth before Congress.

What’s been unearthed so far is embarrassing enough. The Obama administration seems to have rushed the deal through despite multiple warning flags and a lack of due diligence. The now-bankrupt firm, whose largest shareholder is a major Obama fundraiser, spent some $1.8 million on lobbying while waiting for the guarantee.

“If we want to compete with China,” the president said recently, “we’ve got to make sure that our guys here in the United States of America at least have a shot.” “Our guys,” indeed.

Occupy Wall Street organizer hiring people to carry out “direct action”

Last week, video evidence surfaced which proved that the Working Families Party, the SEIU, and ACORN were the driving forces behind the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. Both ACORN and the SEIU have strong ties to the Obama administration.

In light of the Solyndra and the Fast and Furious scandals; you have to ask if the president is actively involved with organizing the OWS protests? After all, this is what a community organizer does.

For those that don’t know, evidence has surfaced that the Obama administration purposefully put guns in the hands of Mexican drug lords for the express purpose of trying to strip the Constitution of the Second Amendment.

Now Live Leak.com has posted evidence that the Working Families Party (WFP) is offering between $350 and $650 per week for people to participate in “direct action” on behalf of the WFP. What is direct action you ask? That is clever liberal spin to say that they are hiring people to participate in protests.

It won’t surprise me at all to find out that President Obama is orchestrating this faux crisis to further his radical agenda. Never let a crisis go to waste, right Mr. President?

How’s that for hope and change? Well at least change…

via Occupy Wall Street organizer hiring people to carry out “direct action”.

Media Pulled Kicking and Screaming Into SolyndraGate

I can hear them right now in newsrooms across the country—

“Are you sure we need to cover this story about a possible fraudulent solar power company?”

“Won’t we look bad when we promote ‘Green Week?’”

“Should we show that video of the Obama at the Solyndra plant, or just act like we lost that file video?”

“But we have been saying for years that Green Jobs will save our future and our economy, how do we walk this back?”

“Won’t this make the Stimulus look bad?”

“If we just ignore it, it’ll go away, besides, we have the Michael Jackson doctor story to lead with!”

“How much did Obama know and when did he know it?” Wait, forget that last question, they won’t be asking that.

These questions might not be asked out loud at meetings, but they don’t have to be.

Don’t worry my media friends, I know how you roll, I’ve been in those meetings, you are hoping the public is much more stupid than they are (they are not) and hoping that they are not paying attention (and they are.) Some of those viewers actually have the internet and they know how to use it. They might even (gasp) listen to Evil Talk Radio.

The Obama connection with Solyndra is an easy one to make. Perhaps that’s why we’re not seeing the story. Protect Dear Leader.

Other than great work by Jake Tapper at ABC, the activist old media has virtually ignored this story because it destroys many of their templates and does so all at the same time. 1) Green jobs, 2) overreaction to supposed “global warming,” 3) Obama is not corrupt, but he is different than other politicians, 4) the stimulus will save us, 5) government knows best … and there are probably a few more I have left out.

This scandal is getting deeper every day and is ablaze on the Internet. This story is being powered by something, and it aint solar; it’s being powered by the truth. It’s being powered by a public that wants to know how a company can squander more than $500 million dollars of our money and why the President would give it to them in the first place, when apparently the White House knew this company had serious problems. E-mails are now out there. Yep, they knew and they still went along with the half-a-billion dollar ruse.

Let’s do the comparison game here for a moment. In 2003 the media was looking for a scandal to take down the Bush White House. “PlameGate” was born. For four years the media blasted the Bush administration for supposedly leaking the name of a CIA agent. Investigations were demanded, accusations made, David Schuster of NBC said Karl Rove would be indicted. CBS did an expose on how both CIA agent’s safety, and national security could be threatened because of the supposed leak. Patrick Fitzgerald conducted an investigation and the media demanded answers. FOUR BLOODY YEARS of hell is what the media put the Bush White House through and inflicted falsehood after falsehood on the public. Many days Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann did nearly their entire hour on the non-issue. Of course, the story flamed-out. Nothing to see here. It was Richard Armitage who leaked the name. Whoops. Sorry, no,actually, they weren’t sorry—there was never an apology.

Four years of “might be’s,” “could be’s,” and “maybe’s,” led to flame-out. Some of us could see the foolishness of that story at the time and I recall vividly some spirited conversations I had in newsrooms about my desire to keep that story in its proper context. For what it’s worth, I was right—but that was easy to see at the time if your eyes were open.

As wrong as the media was during that four year period, they are just as wrong now as they look to protect Dear Leader. Eventually–they will be pushed into doing this story. The facts demand it.

Even if they jump on this story now, they are already too late, this story has been years in the making. Here are the questions newsrooms should’ve been asking long ago relating to Solyndra, Obama and solar energy.

“What is the veracity of solar energy for the future?”

“Is the planet really warming?”

“Who approved giving more than $500 million of our dollars to this company and why?”

“Where did the money go?”

“Where has that money gone from all the “stimulus” programs?”

“Which political campaigns did Solyndra management contribute to?”

Oh, and this one–“What did Obama know and when did he know it?”

Yeah–these questions are tough to ask. They hit a little too close to the media’s home.

via Media Pulled Kicking and Screaming Into SolyndraGate.

Pelosi’s brother-in-law is given $737m of taxpayers’ money to build giant solar plant

Nancy Pelosi is facing accusations of cronyism after a solar energy project, which her brother-in-law has a stake in, landed a $737 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, despite the growing Solyndra scandal.

The SolarReserve project is backed by an energy investment fund where the Minority Leader‘s brother-in-law Ronald Pelosi is second in command.

Tom Schatz, president of Washington-based advocacy group Citizens Against Government Waste, said: ‘It is time for a full audit of their activities, their management and their results.

‘Candidly, it might be time for the federal government to rethink the whole idea of loan programs.’

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk …

via Pelosi’s brother-in-law is given $737m of taxpayers’ money to build giant solar plant.

The Obama Administration Just Flat-Out ROBS You

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:

3/4 of a billion dollars. And who’s the #2 at one of the “investment partners”? None other than the brother in-law of Nancy Pelosi.

(Excerpt) Read more at market-ticker.org …

via The Obama Administration Just Flat-Out ROBS You.

Worse and Worse: Obama Was Personally Briefed on Risks of Solyndra Loan Program

I wonder how the big thinkers at the New York Times will spin this devastating report from their paper’s prominent West Coast namesake:

Long before the politically connected California solar firm Solyndra went bankrupt, President Obama was warned by his top economic advisors about the financial and political risks of the Energy Department loan guarantee program that boosted the company’s rapid ascent. At a White House meeting in late October, Lawrence H. Summers, then director of the National Economic Council, and Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, expressed concerns that the selection process for federal loan guarantees wasn’t rigorous enough and raised the risk that funds could be going to the wrong companies, including ones that didn’t need the help…………………

MORE-n-MORE,Etc……………………………………

via Worse and Worse: Obama Was Personally Briefed on Risks of Solyndra Loan Program.

Thought it couldn’t get any worse than Solyndra?

President Obama’s nominee for Commerce secretary served as chairman of the board of a solar energy company that recently received a $1.37 billion federal loan guarantee – the largest the Department of Energy has ever given for a solar power project.

Now that company, BrightSource Energy, is attempting to build the world’s largest solar power plant amid concerns such ventures may be too risky an investment for the federal government.

In June, BrightSource Chairman John Bryson was nominated by Obama to head the Commerce Department.

WND reported in June that Bryson co-founded an environmental activist group that is a member and funder of the controversial Apollo Alliance.

Read what we’ll need to accomplish to restore America to greatness.

Apollo is run by a slew of socialists and radicals, including Jeff Jones, a founder of the Weather Underground domestic terrorist organization. Jones himself boasts of doing work for the environmental group founded by Bryson, the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Bryson served until June as co-chairman of the Pacific Council on International Policy, a globalist organization whose members can be found throughout the Obama administration.

The massive loan guarantee to BrightSource is meant to build an expensive California desert solar plant known as the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System.

(Story continues below)

via Thought it couldn’t get any worse than Solyndra?.

Obama’s Chicago pals get rich off of his fraud-ridden weatherization programs

Obama’s Chicago pals get rich off of his fraud-ridden weatherization programs

American Thinker ^ | 9/21/11 | Ed Lasky

Posted on Wednesday, September 21, 2011 11:48:19 AM by Nachum

The rest of America is just beginning to learn how Cook County politics works. Barack Obama learned his lessons well. He said as much when he let slip his real views: that politics is about “rewarding friends” and “punishing enemies.”

As president, Obama seems to be busy “rewarding” his home town pals at taxpayer expense. The giant slush fund known as the “stimulus” has been a rich source of payoffs that extend far beyond mega donors such as George Kaiser and his Solyndra investment. The stimulus fund has also been a honey pot to send money to personal pals of Barack and Michelle.

One way he has found to funnel money to friends is through the fraud and waste-ridden weatherization program. This was a Van Jones approved program to help employment in minority communities. People would be hired from those communities to weatherize homes in poorer communities.

The program has been, surprise, a big loser for taxpayers. But for Obama’s pals back in Chicago. Not so-they came out winners.

Amanda Carey reports at the Daily Caller:

…in October 2010, Gregory H. Friedman, Inspector General at the Department of Energy, issued a scathing report on Illinois’ weatherization program funded with stimulus dollars.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com …

via Obama’s Chicago pals get rich off of his fraud-ridden weatherization programs.

Obama Speech was “Obama Unplugged”

In re-reading yesterday’s speech by President Obama, several things stand out.

The first is its crass distortions. In his remarks in the Rose Garden, the president said, “If we’re not willing to ask those who’ve done extraordinarily well to help America close the deficit … then the logic, the math says everybody else has to do a whole lot more: We’ve got to put the entire burden on the middle class and the poor.” As others have pointed out, the top 10 percent of earners pay nearly 70 percent of all income taxes and the richest one percent pay more than 30 percent of their income to the federal government, while the average worker pays less than 14 percent. In addition, almost half of the public do not pay any income taxes at all. This is known as a progressive tax system. Now, one may argue the wealthy should pay even more than they do in taxes – but to pretend not embracing Obama’s plan would place the “entire” burden on the middle class and the poor isn’t “math”; it’s a massive distortion.

The second notable thing about Obama’s speech is its insight into the president’s state of mind. Obama has a deep, almost desperate, need to portray himself as the opposite of what he is. This appears to involve more than simple political considerations. Obama has an unusual capacity to conceive of himself in a way that is at odds with reality. And so the most profligate spender in history warns the rest of us about profligacy and not placing a debt burden “on our children’s shoulders.” The man on whose watch America amassed more than $4 trillion in debt says, “Washington has to live within its means.” The president whose stimulus package was among the most wasteful and ineffective in history insists we have to “go through the budget line-by-line looking for waste.” The same individual who ridiculed Speaker Boehner for his “my way or the highway” approach then threatened, in the very same speech, to issue a veto unless he got his way. And the man who professes solidarity with the poor has seen poverty increase each year of his presidency, with a record number of people (46 million) now living in poverty. If that weren’t enough, Obama also wants to reduce the tax benefit for charitable giving.

Then there’s the fellow who lectured us yesterday about fighting for the middle class “as hard as the lobbyists and some lawmakers have fought to protect special treatment for billionaires and big corporations.” This admonition comes from the same fellow who presides over a White House that inappropriately pressured the Office of Management and Budget to approve half-billion dollars to a company, Solyndra, which wasn’t deserving of the money and has now gone belly up. The reason the money was fast-tracked and funneled to Solyndra was because its chief investor, George Kaiser, is a significant fundraiser for Obama. Kaiser, by the way, is a billionaire.

What Obama is acting out is similar to a phenomenon we sometimes see among ministers. It isn’t simply that they avoid sermonizing about areas they themselves are failing in. They actually portray themselves to their congregations as mastering the very sins that beset them. Cynicism and hypocrisy are obviously at play in these circumstances — but often something more complicated is at work. These people have a compulsive need to cover up their vices by trumpeting an imaginary set of virtues. At some point this habit – to view oneself in a way that is utterly divorced from, and even the opposite of, reality – can become unsettling.

A third thing that stands out in Obama’s speech was its undiluted, rank appeal to class envy. The president is clearly hoping to win re-election by running hard against millionaires and billionaires, which is a (silly) political strategy. But that political strategy is anchored in a political philosophy, one that views wealth creators as people for whom the rest of us should have animus. More than that, they deserve to be punished because they are successful. People may do well –but the job of the federal government is to make sure they don’t do too well. That is a near constant sub-text of the entire Obama presidency. Rather than encouraging wealth creation, Obama has attempted to make it a badge of dishonor (except for rich people who support his campaign, in which case they are given a pass). None of this is surprising, given the intellectual milieu in which Obama spent his formative years.

One senses yesterday’s speech was Obama Unplugged, the real deal, the man in his essence. It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t impressive. But it was authentic.

via Obama Speech was “Obama Unplugged”.

Barack Obama, Flim-Flam Man

Barack Obama, Flim-Flam Man

Barack Obama, Flim-Flam Man:

Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy has an important column in which he argues that the Solyndra fiasco is not just a garden-variety scandal, but a criminal fraud that should land someone, inside and/or outside of the Obama administration, in the slammer.

The facts are very bad. Solyndra was a money-loser from beginning to end. Its business model was untenable. The Bush administration turned it down for funding. Its owners wanted to do a public offering; for that purpose, they had to have their books audited and a report written by PriceWaterhouseCoopers. The report was more or less an obituary for the company:

[O]utside auditors from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) found that condition to be dire. “The company has suffered recurring losses from operations, negative cash flows since inception, and has a net stockholders’ deficit,” the PWC accountants concluded. Even with the gigantic Obama loan, Solyndra was such a basket case that PWC found “substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.”

(Excerpt) Read more

via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984+ NOW!: Barack Obama, Flim-Flam Man.

More Lies: WH Emails Reveal Major Obamacare Accounting Fraud

Does the American public have the bandwidth to follow two Solyndra-style White House scandals at once? As maddening as the Solyndra row has been — and we’ll have an update on that story later this morning — this revelation is probably worse. I reach that conclusion based on the relative scale and consequences of the dueling disgraces’ politically-motivated dishonesty. First, a little bit of background to prime the pump: When Democrats entered their full-court press for Obamacare last winter, they made it clear that nothing would stand in their way. Not hostile public opinion, not sound policy interests, not even a desire to know what was in their own bill. Nothing. One of their boldest plays was to manufacture a CBO score explictly designed to reach the ludicrous conclusion that theor new multi-trillion-dollar entitlement program would actually reduce the deficit. In order to accomplish this feat, they used smoke and mirrors accounting gimmicks that went far beyond even many Beltway cynics’ wildest imaginations.

Rep. Paul Ryan exposed and debunked Democrats’ most audacious tricks…………..

MORE…

via More Lies: WH Emails Reveal Major Obamacare Accounting Fraud.