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Obama talks out of both sides of his Mouth. How can he be trusted

Posted by Adam On January - 30 - 2012 ADD COMMENTS

In 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama dismissed President George W. Bush as “unpatriotic” for boosting the national debt by roughly $4 trillion.

These days, President Obama slams Republicans as unpatriotic because they oppose his even higher pace of deficit spending.

On Wednesday the federal debt reached $15 trillion, or $48,000 for every American man, woman and child.

In July 2008 the national debt was $9 trillion when Obama spoke to a campaign-trail crowd in Fargo, N.D.

“The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children,” Obama complained, ”driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents, [and] number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have now to pay back.”

“That’s irresponsible, that’s unpatriotic,” he declared.

George W. Bush was the forty-third U.S. president.

Campaigning for re-election in 2012, however, Obama has decidedly changed his rhetoric.

He downplays the scale of his presidency’s spending binge — America ran $1.3 trillion deficits in 2009 and 2010 — and claims Republicans are unpatriotic for not raising taxes to support his new deficit spending

On October 4, for example, Obama told supporters at a St. Louis fundraising event that Congress should act patriotic by supporting his one-year, $446 billion stimulus plan, all of which is to be funded by deficit spending and eventually paid off through tax increases.

“We need to pass this [stimulus] bill … if the American people see Washington putting their needs first, putting country before party … that’s going to restore a sense of hope,” he said.

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Barack Obama Government Waste

Obama’s green robber barons

Posted by Adam On January - 27 - 2012 ADD COMMENTS

Had enough of fat cat Barack Obama, his jet-setting wife and his multi-millionaire Chicago consigliere/real-estate mogul Valerie Jarrett attacking the “rich”? Well, brace yourselves. You’ll be hearing much more from the White House about the “wealthy few” who aren’t paying their “fair share” as Obama’s re-election campaign doubles down on class-war demagoguery.

As usual, there’s always a set of immunity charms for the privileged friends and family of the ruling class. When it comes to all the Green Robber Barons who’ve reaped an obscenely unfair share of billions of tax dollars from the Obama administration, the envy trumpeteers will be quieter than a nest of mute church mice.

Obama’s State of the Union address defiantly pitched a new round of clean energy spending orgies to help the “middle class.” But how have the serial bankruptcies and near-bankruptcies of several federally subsidized solar companies — all under Obama’s watch — helped anyone but an upper-crust elite of eco-crats and their lobbyists and consultants?

Bankrupt Solyndra, billionaire George Kaiser. In the wake of the half-billion-dollar Solyndra stimulus bust, company officials revealed plans to hand out hefty bonuses totaling $500,000. Months before the politically connected solar energy manufacturer went belly up, it was doling out bonus payments of between $40,000 and $60,000 to several executives. Last week, a local CBS News crew caught employees at the Silicon Valley headquarters trashing solar panel glass tubes worth an estimated $10 million.

The now-abandoned Taj Mahal complex cost ordinary Americans more than $733 million. But billionaire Democratic donor and frequent White House guest George Kaiser, whose nonprofit foundation was Solyndra’s biggest investor, is still sitting pretty. He and the other private investors of Solyndra will recoup their losses ahead of taxpayers. And while they blast their GOP opponents, double-standard Democrats will remain AWOL on the glaring tax-avoidance strategies of the wealthy Kaiser Family Foundation.

Bankrupt Beacon Power, fat Democratic coffers. This green energy storage plant filed for bankruptcy last fall after a $43 million injection of Obama Department of Energy loan guarantees. Federal election record filings show that CEO William Capp contributed to the 2008 Obama campaign, as well as several left-wing New England Democratic candidates. Beacon Power lobbyist Steve Wolfe was a former aide to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. Beacon sought bankruptcy shelter two days after the White House responded to fiscal watchdogs’ demands for a review of the DOE’s shoddy loan monitoring programs.

Bankrupt SpectraWatt, red-faced Goldman Sachs. A solar cell company based in New York, SpectraWatt went belly up last August despite a half-million-dollar federal stimulus boost and lucrative backing from politically connected Goldman Sachs — whose ties reach deep into the Obama Treasury Department, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, White House National Economic Council and 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. itself. The eco-failure was dumped in a fire sale for less than $5 million.

Teetering Nevada Geothermal, cheerleading Harry Reid. Despite $150 million in federal DOE and Treasury Department subsidies — not to mention personal lobbying by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — this alternative energy project is on the brink of failure. A Deloitte and Touche audit grimly concludes that the company “has incurred net losses over the past several years, has an accumulated deficit of $44.0 million and an anticipated inability to retire its long-term liabilities.” According to CBS News, the company’s latest SEC filings warn of multiple defaults.

My scouring of White House visitor logs shows nine visits from another Green Robber Baron, Illinois-based Exelon’s CEO John Rowe, who met with the president and former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel multiple times. As Forbes magazine reported: The clean energy company “has very deep ties to the Obama Administration. Frank M. Clark, who runs ComEd, helped advise Obama before he ran for president and is one of Obama’s largest fundraisers. Obama’s chief political strategist, David Axelrod, worked as a consultant to Exelon. Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, helped create Exelon” — where he raked in more than $16 million over two years.

Remember: “Fairness” is in the eye of the wealth redistributors.

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KUHNER: Obama threatens religious liberty

Posted by Adam On January - 27 - 2012 ADD COMMENTS

Like many leftists, President Obama has deep contempt for Christianity and democracy. This is why his administration has declared war on the Catholic Church and religious liberty.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently went ahead and approved last year’s decision to mandate that many religious organizations provide health insurance plans to their employees that include contraception, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization coverage – and this must be done without charging a co-pay. In other words, Mr. Obama has done something that is ominous and unprecedented: compelling religious groups to embrace and subsidize free birth control. Catholic universities, hospitals and charities must either betray their fundamental social teachings or drop insurance coverage for their employees, thereby triggering massive financial penalties under Obamacare. The choice is simple: Abandon Catholic doctrine or go out of business.

The ruling will not simply devastate the Catholic heath care system and elaborate social network, which includes soup kitchens, adoption centers, immigrant services and parochial schools. It directly assaults and violates the conscience rights of Catholics. The church teaches that contraception is a sin, an immoral attempt to obstruct God’s will of when and whether human life should be created. It is the ultimate embodiment of pride: man trying to act as God. That is why opposition to birth control is at the heart of the Catholic faith.

The church teaches that the primary purpose of sexual activity within the sacred bonds of marriage is procreation – to perpetuate humanity from one generation to the next. For nearly 1,500 years, such thinking underpinned the Christian West. That was then; this is now. Since the 1960s, modern society is obsessed with contraception, abortion and sexual hedonism. The results have been declining birth rates and shrinking native populations. Literally, the West is dying. As the late Pope John Paul II put it, we are in the grips of “a culture of death.” Birth control is a key pillar. It is a seminal aspect of the socialist drive to establish a secular utopia – smash the traditional family by relentlessly advancing the sexual revolution. The pill and the condom are the hammer and sickle of cultural Marxism. Decades ago, the Vatican warned that birth control eventually would lead to the West’s demise. A civilization unable – and unwilling – to reproduce itself is doomed.

Yet even if one does not care a scintilla about the church’s stance on contraception, the ruling should frighten everybody – Christian and non-Christian. America was founded upon one key principle: religious freedom. The Pilgrims fled religious persecution. Our Founding Fathers deliberately created a republic banning an established church, such as England’s Anglican Church, and championed a nation where different religious denominations could exist – and flourish – without government harassment. Religious liberty lies at the core of American freedom. In fact, the Founders considered it so important that it comes before all other rights enshrined in the First Amendment. James Madison, the primary author of the Constitution, said, “Conscience is the most sacred of all property.” The Obama administration is telling Catholics that their conscience rights can be trampled with impunity. The state has the power to coerce people to support and pay for practices they find morally repugnant and contravene their fundamental religious beliefs. This is tyranny.

Mr. Obama is the most radical president in our history. He is spearheading a liberal social revolution, not just an economic one. He supported partial-birth abortion – the heinous procedure of killing babies just before they are to be delivered. His administration refuses to uphold the Defense of Marriage Act. He has enabled homosexuals to serve openly in the military, transforming the armed forces into a vast laboratory for social engineering. His signature legislation, Obamacare, allows for the federal funding of abortion. Hence, Christians will be forced to have their tax dollars subsidize the mass murder of unborn children – a direct attack on their most basic religious tenets. He is making Christians complicit in infanticide.

To commemorate the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Mr. Obama made a remarkable and revealing statement. He said legalized abortion is indispensable “to ensure that our daughters have the same rights, freedoms and opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams.” In other words, being pregnant is a burden – an obstacle – to be overcome. That a human life is destroyed is irrelevant to him and the feminist left. Murder, it appears, is sometimes necessary to achieve liberalism’s much-vaunted goal of personal liberation.

“Religion is the opiate of the masses,” Karl Marx said. This is why Marxists and their fellow travelers have sought to eradicate religious faith – especially Christianity. Tens of millions of Christians were slaughtered by Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin and Mao Zedong. At its core, communism is based on anti-Christian bigotry (just as national socialism is infused with anti-Semitism).

Mr. Obama is a militant secularist. His aim is to purge religion from the public square, forcing it to retreat into the private sphere – making it nothing more than a personal lifestyle choice. He wants us to leave our faith at the door when engaging in civic life. Yet religion is natural to human beings. The only way radical progressives can forge a secular social order is through a repressive state.

The Obama administration is eroding the First Amendment, assaulting the conscience rights and religious liberties of Catholics and waging a relentless campaign to destroy America’s Judeo-Christian values. Catholics must engage in civil disobedience. Otherwise, Mr. Obama will succeed in dismantling our republic. Today, he is coming for us. Tomorrow, it will be you.

Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist at The Washington Times and president of the Edmund Burke Institute.

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Obama rejects new oil pipeline, blames Congress ( Lol hes been reviewing it for 3 Years )

Posted by Adam On January - 19 - 2012 ADD COMMENTS

WASHINGTON – President Obama yesterday rejected for now the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, saying the $7 billion project could not be adequately reviewed by the 60-day deadline set by Congress. While the president’s action does not preclude later approval of the project, it sets up a fight over energy, jobs, and regulation that will likely persist through the November election.

The president said his hand had been forced by Republicans in Congress, who inserted a provision in the temporary payroll tax cut bill passed in December giving the administration 60 days to decide the fate of the 1,700-mile pipeline from oil sands in Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

The State Department, which has authority over the project because it crosses an international border, said there was not enough time to draw a new route for the pipeline and assess the potential environmental harm along its path. The agency recommended that the permit be denied, and Obama concurred.

“As the State Department made clear last month,’’ the president said in a statement, “the rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline’s impact.’’

Obama said that his action was not a final judgment on the merits of the project.

The trans-border pipeline has become a political flashpoint, with proponents saying it will create thousands of jobs and help wean the nation off Middle Eastern oil, while opponents charge that it furthers dependence on dirty fuels, contributes to global warming, and threatens ecological disaster.

Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, a strong advocate of the pipeline, told Obama yesterday that he was profoundly disappointed in the decision.

Brendan Buck, the spokesman for House Speaker John A. Boehner, said: “President Obama is about to destroy tens of thousands of American jobs and sell American energy security to the Chinese. The president won’t stand up to his political base even to create American jobs.’’

TransCanada, the company proposing to build the pipeline, said that it would quickly apply for a new permit to build along a similar route.

Representative Edward Markey of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, has asserted that much of the oil would be exported after being refined in the United States and therefore would not enhance US energy security.

“The United States shouldn’t be used as a middleman between the dirtiest Canadian oil and the thirstiest foreign markets,’’ he said.

Bill McKibben, who has been arrested several times for protests against the pipeline, said that the decision is a rare case in which “scientists have been smiling and Big Oil scowling.’’

“It wasn’t just the right decision by the president, who listened to scientists and average citizens; it was also a brave decision,’’ said McKibben, an author who was born in Lexington, Mass., and lives in Vermont and teaches at Middlebury College.

Michael Bailey of Globe staff contributed to this report

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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) from doling out big dollars–$236,830, to be exact–to members of their staffs. ( They did such a good they deserve our money lol fkn crooks )

Posted by Adam On January - 18 - 2012 ADD COMMENTS

With only one congressman and two senators, Vermont’s congressional delegation may be small. But that isn’t stopping Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) from doling out big dollars–$236,830, to be exact–to members of their staffs.

As the Burlington Free Press reports:

Of the three lawmakers, Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, gave the most in bonuses. Twenty-nine of his personal office staffers received bonuses ranging from $1,500 to $5,000 last year, totaling $138,830. Leahy, who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee, also gave bonuses to 25 committee staffers, totaling $112,048.

Leahy’s spokesman, David Carle, said many other lawmakers use Leahy’s office salary structure “because it is flexible and fair and rewards good work.”

Sanders gave $2,000 bonuses to 32 people on his personal staff, totaling $64,000. He also gave $2,000 bonuses to two staffers on the Senate health subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging, which he chairs.

Rep. Peter Welch, a Democrat, gave each of his 17 staffers a $2,000 bonus, totaling $34,000. House office budgets are authorized by calendar year and Senate office budgets are authorized by fiscal year.

News of the taxpayer-funded big bonuses comes at a time when state budgets are being slashed, the nation’s unemployment is still above eight percent, and the U.S. government is $15 trillion in debt.

Still, say members of the Vermont delegation, their staff members deserve the bonuses because they did a good job:

The Vermont lawmakers saw the bonuses as a way to reward hard-working staffers, many of whom earn much less than they would in the private sector.

Michael Briggs, a spokesman for independent Sen. Bernie Sanders said, “We have an extremely hard-working and aggressive staff that puts in long hours and (Sanders) could hire more people but does not. That’s how he’s able to give back to the taxpayers the amount that he does at the end of the fiscal year.”

Indeed, the Burlington Free Press notes that Sen. Sanders will return 10.9 percent of his office’s $3 million annual budget. Sen. Leahy, who also has a $3 million office budget will give back 11.7 percent.

But Bradford Fitch, the CEO of a nonprofit group called the Congressional Management Foundation that advises members of Congress on procedures, says giving staffers bonuses is a good idea:

“It still is extremely helpful to managing an office,” he said. “Especially when you take into consideration that, in general, congressional staff get anywhere from 20 to 30 percent less pay than counterparts with similar experience and education in the private sector. Bonuses are one of the ways that they can compensate for that.”

While relatively few working Americans may receive year-end bonuses, according to a 2010 House Compensation Study, handing out bonuses to congressional staff members is a rather common practice:

Lawmakers have the discretion to decide whether to give bonuses, and most do. A 2010 House Compensation Study by ICF International found that 77 percent of 133 offices surveyed gave bonuses that year. That’s down from 89 percent in 2009 and 92.3 percent in 2006, according to the study, produced for the House Chief Administrative Office.

Perhaps Sen. Sanders, who is himself a self-described socialist, and the rest of Congress would do well to remember Lady Margaret Thatcher’s dictum that the trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.

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Congress kicks budget can down the road – again ( Lets fire them all and start over )

Posted by Adam On January - 9 - 2012 ADD COMMENTS

Congress is back from the Christmas recess, and Barack Obama is back from his vacation, just in time to play kick the can for the seventh time in three years. He is going to ask Congress to raise the debt ceiling another $1.2 trillion, which would take the debt to an excess of $16 trillion.

If the federal government paid all revenues coming in against the debt only, it would take over eight years to pay off the principle. That does not take into account any domestic obligations.

The last I knew about how the Constitution laid out the responsibilities of our country, all spending and taxing had to originate in the House of Representatives, then it goes to the Senate. If there are differences, then the bill goes to a committee to reconcile the differences. Then both chambers vote to pass the bill and send it to the president to sign or veto.

It has been over three years since there was a budget passed by Congress to even send to the president.

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Government Printing Office ends 2011 in the black

Posted by BA Team On January - 4 - 2012 ADD COMMENTS

Usually for Wednesday Waste we find an example of hard-to-believe government waste, highlighting the often inefficient ways taxpayer resources are being used. But today, we’re going to change the script a bit and focus on the federal government actually tackling wasteful spending.

This comes from the Government Printing Office (GPO). As The Hill reported late last month, the GPO actually ended 2011 in the black, earning $5.6 million in net income for last fiscal year. In part, the impressive performance was due to the GPO’s survey of Congressional offices, allowing them to decide whether or not to receive copies of documents. It’s this reassessment of age-old practices that the entire federal government could learn from. Just because it’s always been done, doesn’t mean it should necessarily continue. The year-end numbers were also boosted by more aggressive collection of outstanding payments owed by other agencies.

Of course, as we’ve pointed out before, fiscal responsibility often comes with difficult choices. In their effort to get into the black, the GPO reduced the number of employees at the agency – an unfortunate, but cost-saving move.

So, we applaud the GPO for their responsible use of taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars. For too long the federal government has been working under the assumption that spending more than you have is an acceptable operating principle. Other agencies must follow the Printing Office’s example and work to align their costs with the money they have available.

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PA workers raking in big bucks ( Public Unions are slowly strangling us )

Posted by Adam On December - 15 - 2011 ADD COMMENTS

They take your cash . . . in so many ways.

Port Authority toll collectors not only grab your money at New York-New Jersey crossings, they’re now pulling down stunning six-figure salaries funded by the levies you pay at bridges and tunnels.

Twenty-four toll collectors at the bi-state agency have made more than $80,000 so far in 2011 — payments pumped up by massive overtime. Seven of those workers took in $90,000 or more.

SOME PORT AUTHORITY EMPLOYEES GETTING 80G-PLUS FOR NOT WORKING

But that’s chump change to the top toll taker.

Warren Stevens has made $102,670 so far this year — $40,614 of it OT.

Warzer jaff

CASH GRAB: Toll takers are pulling in pay above $90,000.

With overtime paid at time-and-a-half, Stevens averaged about 20 hours of OT per week, or about 130 extra eight-hour shifts per year, an analysis of PA data shows.

Karen DuPree is the No. 2 highest-paid toll taker, making $97,621 — more than a third of it from overtime pay of $37,470.

The annual salaries will only swell since the figures released Friday for all 6,777 PA employees do not include December paychecks.

Princesella Smith, 51, who has made $89,599 working the toll lanes at the George Washington Bridge this year, understandably loves her profession.

“I’m blessed,” she told The Post. “I have a great job, and in this economy it’s great that I can cover everything with my eight hours a day and overs.”

The driving public is a little less enthused, especially after the PA hiked tolls $4 this past summer at its six crossings.

“Any commuter is going to be outraged,” said Cathleen Lewis, a spokeswoman for AAA New Jersey. “Any toll increase should be paying for infrastructure . . . It shouldn’t be paying for excessive salaries.”

Toll collectors — whose ranks have dwindled to 147 as they are replaced by the electronic E-ZPass system — aren’t the only ones cashing in.

Port Authority gardeners are raking in big bucks, too. At least 11 of them bring in annual salaries of more than $80,000.

Michael Finlator has earned $94,106 in 2011 as a gardener. More than $24,000 of that comes from overtime.

Fernando Ippolito, a blacksmith, took in more than $146,000.

Louis LaCapra, the PA’s chief administrative officer, made the most of any agency employee, bringing in $324,940 so far.

Kevin Cottrell, the agency’s top paid cop, made $265,059 in 2011.

The PA — being sued by motorist groups who claim chronically increasing tolls don’t go to pay for transportation projects — is now conducting an audit of its finances.

“The Port Authority is conducting an agency-wide review led by a special committee of its board,” spokesman Ron Marsico said. “That review will address compensation and benefits.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who shares oversight of the PA with Gov. Cuomo, believes more scrutiny must be paid to the agency’s finances and skyrocketing salaries.

“There has to be some rational basis for individuals making their salaries or more than their salaries in overtime,” said Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak.

“Management practices need scrutiny at the Port Authority.”

Cuomo’s office did not respond yesterday to a request for comment.

The PA’s 1,300 cops are also getting huge overtime payments, but Robert Egbert, the board of trustees chairman for the union that represents them, said a shortage of cops is to blame. He said the agency hasn’t hired new cops since 2008.

“That’s mismanagement by the Port Authority,” he said. “Their response is it’s cheaper to pay the overtime than to hire the new employees.”

mgartland@nypost.com

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Sen. McCaskill Requests Probe Into $433M Smallpox Drug Contract

Posted by Adam On November - 29 - 2011 ADD COMMENTS

A Democratic senator called this week for an investigation into a $433 million government contract for a smallpox drug amid questions over the necessity of the drug and the way the contract was approved.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who chairs a subcommittee on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said there are “serious questions” about the contract, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The senator reportedly requested an investigation in a letter to Daniel Levinson, the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services.

The request comes after the Times reported earlier this month that U.S. officials took unusual steps to award the contract to Siga Technologies. Democratic donor Ronald Perelman has the controlling share of the company.

The article cited emails showing the Obama administration replaced the lead negotiator on the project following complaints from Siga, which was apparently concerned about the government’s objections to how much money Siga would make off the deal.

Earlier, in December, the government also reportedly blocked other companies from bidding on the contract in a second round.

Siga ultimately won the contract in May, but some questioned the price of the drug — approximately $255 per dose — and the practicality of the project.

The government already has a smallpox vaccine on reserve. Siga’s pill is meant to help people diagnosed too late for the vaccine to be effective, according to the Times.

But the drug has not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and there are limits on how it can be tested.

But Nicole Lurie, the Department of Health and Human Services official in charge of biodefense, told the Times the contract was granted on merit. And she cited a 2004 study showing a “material threat” that smallpox could be a biological weapon.

A Perelman representative also told the newspaper that his political donations merely represent “his right” to support candidates.

More Payola

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Solyndra Case Reveals Gateway Between Administration Loans, Obama Allies

Posted by Adam On November - 16 - 2011 ADD COMMENTS

As the White House rejects charges that the Obama administration was motivated by politics in its decisions on green energy loans, scrutiny is increasing over the preference given to Democratic donors seeking federal loans.

Recent emails suggest that politics did play a role in administration decisions regarding its energy loan guarantee programs. But beyond the timing of political announcements, the Solyndra investigation has churned up questions about the White House’s overall strategy of doling out taxpayer money.

The rolls of green energy subsidies show that beyond a few headline-grabbing cases, several well-connected Democrats obtained taxpayer assistance for environmentally friendly projects.

Among the recipients are:

– Solyndra, which received $535 million in loan guarantees and whose chief investor was Obama campaign bundler, George Kaiser;

– Brightsource Energy, which received $1.6 billion and whose senior adviser is Robert Kennedy, Jr., an early Obama backer;

– Solar Reserve, which got a $737 million loan, and whose major investor, Michael Froman, was a deputy assistant to the president. Froman bundled up to $500,000 for the president’s 2008 campaign;

– Granite Reliable Wind Generation, which received a $168.9 million loan. The company’s majority owner is Nancy Ann DeParle, a White House deputy chief of staff and former head of the president’s health care communications team during the reform debate; and

– Abound Solar, which received $400 million in grants. A key investor is billionaire heiress Pat Stryker, who gave $87,000 to Obama’s inauguration committee, and hundreds of thousands more to Democratic causes.

Peter Schweizer, author of the book, “Throw Them All Out,” wrote that at least 10 members of Obama’s finance committee and more than a dozen of his campaign bundlers took money from administration loan programs.

Schweizer told Fox News that he believes that many of those who were chosen to receive loan guarantees, were picked almost solely for their success in raising money for the Obama campaign.

Obama used the alternative energy program as an opportunity to make his campaign contributors “even more wealthy than they are,” he said.

“This is a payoff to people who are your political backers and supporters. And this is really a wealth transfer from middle class taxpayers to billionaires,” Schweizer said, adding that about 75 percent of the loans and grants doled out by the federal government has gone to “Obama-connected companies” even though the acceptance rate in the program is less than 10 percent.

Nick Loris, an economic and energy policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, said the problem lies with the government playing the role of venture capitalist.

“This is a problem of when the government becomes involved in economic decisions that are best left for the private sector. It reduces the incentive to lower costs and innovate,” he said.

He added that the Energy Department had an enormous amount of power because it received so much of the 2009 stimulus money.

“The real question needs to be the merit of the loan guarantee program, why is the government picking winners and losers in the market place when there is a huge demand for electricity, there’s huge demand for transportation fuels. That profit incentive (alone is enough) to drive new technologies into the market place … and I think really the question needs to be why do we have this program in the first place,” Loris said.

On Tuesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee released emails about the loan to Solyndra, the failed solar energy company that has become the poster child for criticism over the loan program.

One of the emails — dated Oct. 30, 2010, just days before the midterm election — conveys how the Department of Energy wanted Argonaut Equity, the biggest investor in Solyndra, to hold off on news of pending layoffs until Nov. 3, the day after the election.

“DOE continues to be cooperative and have indicated that they will fund the November draw on our loan (app. $40 million) but have not committed to December yet,” wrote one Solyndra investor adviser. “They did push very hard for us to hold our announcement of the consolidation to employees and vendors to Nov. 3rd — oddly they didn’t give a reason for that date.”

The Energy Department and White House have steadfastly maintained that loan guarantees were made strictly on their merits.

“The Republican report cites internal email from Argonaut about the timing of a press release. But as the 180,000 pages of documents that the Department of Energy turned over to the committee indicate, the department’s decisions about this loan were made on the merits, based on extensive review by the experts in the loan program — and nothing in this Republican Committee memo changes that,” said Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera.

However, the Government Accountability Office and the Energy Department’s inspector general both issued critical reports in March on the department’s loan program. According to the IG report, investigators found that loan guarantee program could not always readily demonstrate “how it resolved or mitigated relevant risks prior to granting” the loans. It noted that key documents were missing from three of 18 electronic files despite federal requirements for inclusion and included only limited data for 12 additional projects.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu is expected to testify Thursday on the program to the House Energy’s oversight subcommittee. He told NPR this week that the loan guarantee program analysis improved under his watch.

“We did no cut corners. We made it more thorough and diligent,” he told the public radio network, adding that the application process went through professionals and “outside people” who looked at he landscape and market conditions.

But that answer does not seem credible to House Republicans, including oversight subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., who issued a statement Wednesday saying that the committee wants to hear from Chu why “all the warnings, from inside and outside the Department of Energy, were ignored and this risky bet was allowed to happen.”

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Fannie, Freddie Execs Defend Pay Packages ( So tired of hearing about how they need that kind of pay to get good people. What bs )

Posted by Adam On November - 16 - 2011 ADD COMMENTS

Top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Wednesday defended their companies’ pay practices which have drawn opposition after it was disclosed the government-controlled firms were paying out nearly $13 million in executive bonuses.

Michael Williams, chief executive of Fannie Mae, and Charles Haldeman, Freddie Mac’s chief executive, both argued the compensation structures at the mortgage finance firms were warranted to retain and attract qualified staff.

A bill to block the pay packages was approved by the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday in a 52-4 vote. The full House must still vote on the measure. A similar bill has been introduced in the Senate.

The two loss-making firms have been propped up by about $169 billion in federal aid since they were rescued by the government in 2008.

In testimony before a U.S. House of Representatives committee, the firms’ executives said cutting compensation for workers at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be disruptive and limit their ability to attract skilled management.

“We need to compensate our executives and employees to ensure that we have and keep the leadership we need to continue our progress,” Williams told the House Oversight Committee.

Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate have expressed chagrin that the two companies were paying out $12.79 million in bonuses for 10 executives.

The government took control of the firms, the two largest sources of funding for U.S. mortgages, as mounting losses threatened their solvency during the financial crisis.

Williams said that without legislative direction from Congress on the future of the two government-sponsored enterprises, it was “difficult to attract and retain employees with highly specialized skills, expertise and experience.”

Democrats and Republicans largely agree the firms will eventually have to be shuttered, but lawmakers are moving cautiously given the central role the companies play in the U.S. housing finance system and the battered state of the housing sector.

The chief executives and the companies’ regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, made the case that uncertainty over the firms’ future has made it more difficult to keep qualified personnel in place.

FHFA acting Director Edward DeMarco said the turnover rate at Freddie Mac has averaged about 13 percent in the past two quarters, well above its five-year average of about 8 percent. Fannie Mae’s turnover rate sits at about an 11 percent annual rate after averaging about six percent rate over the previous three years.

“A sudden and sharp change in pay would certainly risk a substantial exodus of talent, the best leaving first in many instances,” he told lawmakers as he defended the compensation packages for a second straight day. DeMarco had testified on Tuesday before the Senate Banking Committee.

Haldeman, who has already said he will leave Freddie Mac once his replacement is found, said the company has reduced compensation for the top 10 percent of the management team by about 40 percent since the firm was taken over by the government in September 2008.

“We have taken several measures to reduce overall compensation levels,” Haldeman said. He added that it would be counterproductive to change the pay scales for the mortgage firm’s employees without reform of the overall housing finance system.

“It would make it much harder for us to retain people we have and attract qualified people to replace them,” he said.

DeMarco, who signed off on the pay plans, said he intends to draw down the bonus levels going forward. But he defended the salaries and said Congress should implement a plan to revamp the housing finance system in order to finally resolve questions over bonus structures at the two firms.

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Morning Bell: Debunking Obama’s Latest Jobs Myth

Posted by Adam On November - 3 - 2011 ADD COMMENTS

Imagine a high-speed train zooming down hundreds of miles of glistening train track stretching across sunny California, connecting Anaheim to San Francisco. It’s a bullet train dream, and it’s a prime example of President Barack Obama’s latest plan to create jobs in America. The trouble is that this dream is far from reality.

The Los Angeles Times reported this week that the California high-speed train–which is funded in part by $3 billion in federal grants from President Obama’s stimulus–is now expected to cost $98 billion, twice what was expected, and will take an additional 13 years to complete, extending the project to 2033. Questions remain about where the funding will come from, whether the project is viable, and whether the projected ridership will even materialize.

But projects like these are central to President Obama’s plan to put Americans back to work. Speaking yesterday from Georgetown Waterfront Park in Washington, D.C., Obama declared that his plan will “put hundreds of thousands of construction workers back on the job rebuilding our roads, our airports, our bridges and our transit systems.” And that is, of course, all at the expense of the American taxpayers.

The President once called these projects “shovel ready,” meaning that as soon as money arrived from the federal government, workers could be on the job. He made it sound as easy as flipping a switch, but unfortunately it didn’t work as planned. Despite a $787 billion stimulus package, America’s economy continues to languish with 14 million out of work and a 9.1 percent unemployment rate. The President joked, “Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected.” Though he didn’t use the phrase “shovel-ready” in his remarks yesterday, the implication was still there. If Congress approves his jobs plan, he argued, all the construction workers sitting on the sidelines will be put back to work overnight.

But that’s not the way things work in the real world. Associated Press and Congressional Research Service reports show that infrastructure spending does not create jobs and, in fact, can even have a negative effect. Heritage’s Patrick Knudsen explains:

Building and repairing roads and bridges neither creates net job growth nor boosts the economy in the near term.

First, increasing government spending on these projects simply moves resources from one place to another — it may employ construction workers, but only by reducing jobs in other sectors. Further, the money never gets out the door soon enough to promote near-term job growth.

And then there’s the President’s flawed argument that since others are doing it, the United States should be, too. “How do we sit back and watch China and Europe build the best bridges and high-speed railroads and gleaming new airports, and we’re doing nothing?” he asks. It’s not a new line of argument from the President, and it leaves out some very important facts.

Dating all the way back to the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama spoke of the need to “invest” in infrastructure in order to be competitive with the likes of China. At the time, Jim Geraghty reported at National Review Online that while Obama puts China on a pedestal, he entirely overlooks some serious problems with transportation in China–namely, stories of severe power shortages affecting the country’s exports, an episode where 500,000 train passengers were left stranded for days, and outbreaks of violence where airplane travelers were left grounded without accommodation. And that’s not to mention the working conditions under which China builds its infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Europe, which heavily subsidizes its passenger rail systems, receives a poor return on its investment. Heritage’s Ron Utt explains that despite massive spending, passengers are opting for more efficient transportation in the air:

In Europe as a whole (EU-27), rail accounted for only 6.1 percent of passenger travel in 2007, including travel by air and sea. Buses accounted for 8.3 percent of the market, and air travel accounted for 8.8 percent. Despite Europe’s huge investment in passenger rail, its market share declined from 6.6 percent in 1995 to 6.1 percent in 2007. Over that same period, commercial air increased its share from 6.3 percent to 8.8 percent. By providing faster service and competitive prices, it took passengers away from rail, buses, and autos.

But to hear President Obama tell the story, building a European- or Chinese-style infrastructure is the key to the future–and to creating new jobs. Workers are ready to go, and all they need is your money to get started. But this is something we tried once already with the last stimulus, it didn’t work, and it’s not going to work this time, either. Obama’s infrastructure plan is a train that shouldn’t leave the station, headed for a bridge to nowhere, and jobs are the last thing that it will deliver.

Quick Hits:

Thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters rioted in Oakland yesterday evening — shutting down a busy port, taking over abandoned buildings, setting fires, burning American flags, and destroying ATMs.
Europe’s leaders threatened to halt aid to Greece until after it votes on a referendum to meet its commitments to the Eurozone. Meanwhile, Greece’s government is reportedly “on the brink of collapse.”
The Obama Administration considered bailing out solar company Solyndra just before it went bankrupt. The Energy Department would have taken on some of its debt in return for a partial stake in the company.
Amazon.com is offering to process sales-tax collection for merchants who sell products through its site all for a fee equal to 2.9 percent of the taxes collected. Previously, Amazon lobbied against the imposition of sales taxes on online transactions.
The State Department has purchased more than $70,000 worth of President Barack Obama’s two books for Christmas “gratuities” and stocking of “key libraries” abroad.

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Hey ‘Occupy’, Whatever Happened to Starting at the Bottom and Working Your Way Up?

Posted by Adam On November - 2 - 2011 ADD COMMENTS

The gathering known as “Occupy Wall Street” camped out in lower Manhattan is still going strong and it shows no signs of letting up any time soon. Perhaps last week’s freak October snowstorm will change some minds.

While the demands of this organization of the disorganized are all over the lot, the college-age kids in the crowd and those who are recent graduates are pushing for the forgiveness of all debt, particularly the hefty college loans that many find themselves saddled with.

And barring a miracle that will forgive those loans, they want and need jobs to pay their debt.

But since the evil capitalists aren’t giving them the jobs they feel entitled to after getting that high priced education, they have no way to fulfill their obligations.

Entitled is a word that doesn’t apply to all the members of the millennial generation but it appears to apply to a large part of the folks who make up the Occupy (fill in your city) movement.

Many say they can’t find jobs. They are angry that their parents and the media sold them a bill of goods that if they got a college education it would guarantee some better level of employment than their peers who didn’t attend college. They are learning a very harsh lesson—in life nothing is guaranteed.

But what made them think that a degree from a four year college entitles or guarantees them to anything?

What skills do they have? What work experience do they have? Is their degree in a marketable skill that society needs like engineering or one of dubious value like ethnic studies? Are they willing to take an entry level job on the lower rungs of the career ladder to gain that vital experience?

Even if they have a law degree or MBA, do they think they should start out as partners in a law firm or senior managers of a company?

That is a second harsh lesson that they are quickly learning. When you enter the workforce, everyone starts at the bottom.
Jerry Seinfeld sold light bulbs by phone. Madonna worked at a Dunkin’ Donuts.

And Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard started out as a secretary even though she had a degree from Stanford University. Her advice for success? “Do the best you can at any job and be willing to work your way up.”

I was given a vivid reminder of Ms. Fiorina’s advice on one of my annual trips to Idaho where I took part in “gathering” worlds apart from Occupy Wall Street.

Gathering in Idaho and many parts of the American west is the time of year when the cattle are brought down from the high country summer grazing pastures to lower elevations in preparation for winter.

My hosts at gathering are the Ellis Family, owners of the OK Bar Ranch—Jenn, her husband Shawn and their two grown-up daughters, Kassy and D.J. and teenage son Chandler.

For me this experience only lasts a few exhilarating days but for the Ellis’ and other families like them it’s just another task to complete in a year filled with many tasks.

Kassy and DJ are about the same age as many of the Occupy Wall Street protestors. But age is about all they have in common.

Kassy is a college graduate and is now a registered nurse. But when she graduated with her nursing degree it was difficult finding full time work.

Finally she found a job at the new Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello.

It was an entry level position that many others had turned down because it was a lot of grunt work with a brutal schedule. But she took it gladly because it got her started in her chosen field.

And by taking that tough job she no doubt is earning the respect of her bosses and co-workers. What she learns there will make her a better nurse but more importantly a better person.

The difference between Kassy and the “Occupy” kids goes even further. She isn’t saddled with student loans because she was told at an early age that if she wanted to get a college degree they would have to find the means herself.

And that is just what she did.

When she was 10 years old, using the money she had saved from harvest work, Kassy bought her first cow. Since then she has increased her herd and the sale of the calves all those years paid for her college education.

The young folks of Occupy Wall Street complain about the lack of jobs.

But are they willing to start at the bottom, gain experience and then move up the ladder?

In the final analysis, it’s not where you started that counts. It’s where you end up.

Just ask Jerry Seinfeld.

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All News Government Waste

Scandal-Plagued Former California City Official Sues City for Failing to Pay $1.5 Million Salary

Posted by Adam On November - 1 - 2011 ADD COMMENTS

The former city manager of scandal-plagued Bell, Calif., filed a lawsuit against the city Monday, claiming his contract was breached when the city stopped paying him nearly $1.5 million in salary and benefits.

Robert Rizzo claims he’s owed benefits and wages — with interest — because he hasn’t been convicted of a felony and hasn’t resigned his post, according to court documents he filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

According to the lawsuit, Rizzo hasn’t been paid since a public meeting in July 2010, when the small, blue-collar community of Bell learned of his outsized pay packet.

Protesters were outraged by compensation of $100,000 to City Council members that met once a month, but it was Rizzo’s $787,637 salary, along with numerous perks that amounted to almost $1.5 million a year, that it led furious residents to view him as the poster child for corruption in government.

They came out in droves to let that anger be known at city meetings.

“In response, the City Council locked Rizzo out of his office and stopped paying Rizzo his salary and benefits due to him under his employment agreement,” the lawsuit said.

Rizzo notified the city that he hadn’t resigned, retired or terminated their agreement in August 2010, but never got a response, according to the lawsuit.

Prosecutors say Rizzo orchestrated a scheme to bilk the Los Angeles suburb out of more than $6 million.

Rizzo and seven other Bell city officials face charges of fraud and misappropriation of public funds. Rizzo has pleaded not guilty.

Bell Mayor Ali Saleh said he’d leave it to lawyers to talk about the legal merit of Rizzo’s filing, but says “Rizzo’s lawsuit is just another example of the gross disregard he has had towards all the working families in Bell and is just another distraction from the injustices Bell residents suffered under Rizzo.”

Saleh expressed hope the lawsuit would be thrown out and that Rizzo would be found guilty of the criminal charges against him.

“The real atrocity is that taxpayers have to respect due process and spend precious tax dollars on defending ourselves from the same person who had a complete disregard for due process and misappropriated millions of taxpayer dollars,” Saleh said.

Rizzo filed the lawsuit on his own behalf. Numbers for Rizzo’s former homes in Huntington Beach, Calif., and Washington state were disconnected. A message left at the number listed for Rizzo on Monday’s lawsuit filing was not immediately returned.

Rizzo’s lawyer on fraud and other charges, James Spertus, said Monday that Rizzo’s claim is just — even if the outraged public may balk at paying Rizzo his salary.

“Thank God judges are not guided by emotion,” said Spertus.

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All News Government Government Waste

Second Energy Department-backed company goes bankrupt ( You have to love the way they are spending out money )

Posted by Adam On October - 31 - 2011 ADD COMMENTS

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 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.

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.

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/190641-second-energy-dept-backed-company-goes-bankrupt

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Next Bailout Target: Netflix Shareholders? ( Writer makes a good point )

Posted by Adam On October - 26 - 2011 ADD COMMENTS

Stanley Thornton, Jr. is a 30-year-old man who spends a good deal of his time acting like a baby. Mr. Thornton runs the website www.bedwettingabdl.com. ABDL stands for “Adult Baby Diaper Lover.” He enjoys activities like being diapered, spoon-fed, and coddled. He sucks on a pacifier and plays in a playpen.

After Mr. Thornton appeared on the National Geographic television program “Taboo” and was pictured building adult baby furniture—a highchair, in this case—he incurred the wrath of Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

Senator Coburn, who is a physician, questioned the wisdom of providing social security disability payments to a man who prefers to live his life as a baby and who—despite his contentions that he is unable to work, and despite repeated confirmation of this by the Social Security Administration—has been able to shop for lumber, build large-scale “baby” furniture, drive a vehicle, maintain a long-term relationship (with a recently-deceased female friend who diapered him and bottle fed him) and operate a website.

Mr. Thornton recently threatened to commit suicide if his social security disability payments were suspended. They were not.

I don’t know Mr. Thornton and have never examined him, but he is clearly a very determined man, in some very specific ways.

Mr. Thornton explains on his website that surviving childhood abuse contributed to his extraordinary need for comfort and security now—feelings he obtains by donning a onesy and a diaper and climbing into his crib or crawling on the floor.

Seen in one way, Mr. Thornton decision to act like a baby is actually saving American taxpayers money. He has apparently stumbled on a way to comfort himself that costs us a lot less than it would to repeatedly hospitalize him on psychiatric units, which could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

He apparently isn’t being triaged to emergency rooms with panic attacks or thoughts of suicide on a weekly basis.

He doesn’t report overdosing repeatedly and being treated in intensive care units at $50,000 a pop.

He reportedly receives a little less than $900 a month from the federal government and pretends to be an infant.

The sad truth is that it’s actually cheaper and more convenient to maintain Mr. Thornton in his pathological state than to cure him. And that’s the real problem here.

Mr. Thornton has been twice victimized: First, apparently, by family members and others who physically and psychologically abused him as a child and, then, by a mental health care system that very, very often opts out of doing real battle with psychopathology.

It’s easier to label Mr. Thornton with one or two or three diagnoses from the ever-revised and re-revised and re-re-revised “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” file paperwork to get him enough money to stay home and stay out of everyone’s hair and maybe medicate him with one or two or three prescriptions for anxiety (although I have no idea if Mr. Thornton takes medication of any kind).

Welcome to the state of state-funded psychiatry in 2011, rubber-stamped by the American Psychiatric Association.

Just so you know, there’s one other dirty little secret in the social security disability diaper: Mr. Thornton and others social security disability recipients don’t just qualify for payments beginning when they apply for benefits. No, their payments can be retroactive for a full year, if their symptoms began that long ago. So thousands (or more) individuals receive lump-sum checks for $10,000. Many go on buying sprees at jewelry stores or even purchase street drugs from dealers.

Now, if you want to know what real psychiatry looks like, I’ll share a memory with you of one of my mentors, the late and great psychiatrist Theodore Nadelson. Dr. Nadelson lives on in the memories of, literally, hundreds of psychiatrists like me who listened to him and learned from him. I’ll change some of the details to completely maintain the anonymity of the patient involved in my story.

When I was an intern, Dr. Nadelson brought me with him to visit a patient on a locked psychiatry unit. A man there in his thirties, whom I’ll call Frank, insisted he would need to live on the unit forever. He’d already been there for three months, and it was his eleventh admission. He insisted that he needed the nurses to comfort him and that he would take his life were he ever discharged.

Dr. Nadelson, who had reviewed Frank’s psychiatric history extensively and interviewed him extensively several times, listened intently to every word Frank said. Then he looked him directly in the eyes. “You’re being discharged today,” he said.

“I told you, I’ll kill myself if you make me leave,” Frank protested.

“That may be,” Dr. Nadelson said. “And that would injure me deeply. I would be truly saddened. I mean that, from the bottom of my heart.” He paused, and you could tell in his eyes that he did mean it. “But, ultimately, Frank,” he said, “it has to be your decision. You’re a man, like I am.” He put a hand on Frank’s shoulder. “You can find the strength to live like one. I know you can.”

When we left the room and were walking down the hallway, I asked Dr. Nadelson if he really intended to discharge the patient, despite the man’s threat to take his own life.

“Yes,” he told me. “He’ll leave today, with security taking him to the exit, if need be.”

“But what if he kills himself?” I asked.

Nadelson glanced at me. “What makes you think he isn’t killing himself sitting in that room and avoiding his whole life?”

See, Ted Nadelson was a real psychiatrist. He knew what it was to take a real risk and a real look into darkness, in order to restore a man’s soul. He knew it took courage and commitment and compassion, in equal measure. He wasn’t a doctor content to label and medicate and push disability paperwork through this sorry system.

I miss him. I miss what he represented. And I know he would do a whole lot more for Stanley Thornton than write him a prescription, get him a government check and buy him a box of Pampers.

Dr. Keith Ablow is a psychiatrist and member of the Fox News Medical A-Team. Dr. Ablow can be reached at info@keithablow.com. His team of Life Coaches can be reached at lifecoach@keithablow.com.

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All News Barack Obama Government Waste

Govt. Worker Paid to Stay Home

Posted by Adam On October - 18 - 2011 ADD COMMENTS

You’ve heard the calls all year from politicians and the public: Government needs to go on a diet. The Obama administration says it is reining in waste. Republicans itching to run Washington say they’ll rein it in more. They haven’t met Stephen Patrick. Patrick, 43, used to have one of the federal government’s more arcane jobs: driving nuclear materials around the country in unmarked convoys to support the nation’s weapons stockpile. He makes $47,000 a year. He is a former cop and Marine who rides a Harley — and does not like bureaucracies too much. After he broke the rules on driving government vehicles, he appealed a suspension, and his bosses tried to sack him. He fought back — and won. That was more than four years ago. For three of them, Patrick has been paid to sit at home or sit at a desk doing nothing. It has taken that long for his supervisors and top brass at the Energy Department to debate whether Patrick could continue in his job as a nuclear courier for the National Nuclear Security Administration. They still haven’t decided. Patrick’s story is one of dizzying accusations, counteraccusations, memos and appeals — of the “absurdities encountered by Alice during her mad tumble down the rabbit hole,” as the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates federal personnel decisions, put it. Alice, of course, climbed out of the rabbit hole. Patrick might have been wrong, but his bosses’ conduct was worse, the special counsel said in a ruling in August that concluded Energy officials violated Patrick’s rights to due process. Energy officials told the special counsel that Patrick’s sensitive, high-security job justified their effort to push him out. But Secretary Steven Chu agreed to provide more protections for employees. The trouble began in July 2007, when, on overnight rest during a courier trip in New Mexico, Patrick drove 340 miles without authorization to meet a friend for dinner. He was suspended for 30 days, a punishment his second-level supervisor called “serious overkill.” He appealed to the Merit Systems Protection Board after telling his supervisor the trip was proper because other federal agents did the same thing. The board didn’t buy that. Around this time, he told the Energy inspector general that fellow couriers were drinking on the job, prompting an investigation. Patrick says these actions prompted his bosses to retaliate. His certification to guard nuclear materials was revoked pending a review — making it impossible for Patrick to work as a courier. A slew of psychological evaluations came next, with one contradicting the next, records show. His supervisors called him a difficult employee who had not shown remorse for misusing the car. He took his case to an appeals board in the agency — and was suspended indefinitely following agency policy. Patrick became an unpaid federal employee. He returned from his post near a nuclear site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., to his home town near Canton, Ohio, rented an apartment and enrolled in community college under the G.I. bill. His supervisors offered him $250,000 to drop his appeal and quit, according to Patrick and lawyers in the case. He refused. “I told them I don’t want the money,” Patrick said. “I want my job back.” Joshua McConaha, spokesman for the nuclear agency, declined to comment on the offer. On his day in administrative court, Patrick’s supervisors said he had trouble dealing with stress, was arrogant and should not keep his job. But the hearing officer found “insufficient evidence” to support those claims and said he should be reinstated. Then Energy officials who were required to review the case sat on it. They had no deputy secretary to make a ruling, the special counsel said. It was eight more months before Patrick was ordered back to work. Although he’d inquired about the outcome of the hearing, Patrick had no idea during that time that he’d won his appeal. Finally, in September 2009, Deputy Secretary Daniel Poneman ordered Patrick to be recertified. After 13 months, he was back on the payroll. “What would a normal person think?” he said. “I beat them. Let’s get back to work.” Not so fast. Patrick’s bosses interpreted the ruling to mean he had to start at square one and re-apply for certification. For five months, he collected a paycheck while he waited for his paperwork to clear. “I sat at home in Ohio,” Patrick said. “My neighbors said, ‘Why are you still here?’ I said, ‘It’s taxpayers’ money paying me to be here.’ ” Eventually he was put on a special detail in Albuquerque to help with security training at nuclear plants. He said he sat a desk doing nothing. Hours before he was to drive to Arkansas to repeat his firearms training, he learned he would not be recertified — again. Yep, Patrick appealed — again. And, like before, he was suspended indefinitely. He would have been taken off the payroll again, but he brought the case to the special counsel’s office. Officials there asked for (and got) a stay in the case while they investigated. In August, Associate Special Counsel William E. Reukauf concluded that Patrick’s “lengthy indefinite suspensions” were a violation of federal personnel rules. Reukauf wrote, “Rarely would an employee have the stamina or perseverance . . . to endure 13 months without pay, prevail on the merits and then endure again a potentially endless cycle of recertification, denial and indefinite suspension.” Energy officials promised Patrick back pay. McConaha said the agency is “committed to ensuring a process is in place to respond promptly and appropriately in any case that involves a potential violation of an employee’s rights.” But it’s not over. Another hearing is scheduled for Oct. 31 to determine, again, whether Patrick will be allowed to guard nuclear materials. Meanwhile, he is still in Ohio, collecting a paycheck.

They haven’t met Stephen Patrick.

Patrick, 43, used to have one of the federal government’s more arcane jobs: driving nuclear materials around the country in unmarked convoys to support the nation’s weapons stockpile. He makes $47,000 a year. He is a former cop and Marine who rides a Harley — and does not like bureaucracies too much.

After he broke the rules on driving government vehicles, he appealed a suspension, and his bosses tried to sack him. He fought back — and won.

That was more than four years ago. For three of them, Patrick has been paid to sit at home or sit at a desk doing nothing.

It has taken that long for his supervisors and top brass at the Energy Department to debate whether Patrick could continue in his job as a nuclear courier for the National Nuclear Security Administration.

They still haven’t decided.

Patrick’s story is one of dizzying accusations, counteraccusations, memos and appeals — of the “absurdities encountered by Alice during her mad tumble down the rabbit hole,” as the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates federal personnel decisions, put it.

Alice, of course, climbed out of the rabbit hole.

Patrick might have been wrong, but his bosses’ conduct was worse, the special counsel said in a ruling in August that concluded Energy officials violated Patrick’s rights to due process.

Energy officials told the special counsel that Patrick’s sensitive, high-security job justified their effort to push him out. But Secretary Steven Chu agreed to provide more protections for employees.

The trouble began in July 2007, when, on overnight rest during a courier trip in New Mexico, Patrick drove 340 miles without authorization to meet a friend for dinner. He was suspended for 30 days, a punishment his second-level supervisor called “serious overkill.”

He appealed to the Merit Systems Protection Board after telling his supervisor the trip was proper because other federal agents did the same thing. The board didn’t buy that. Around this time, he told the Energy inspector general that fellow couriers were drinking on the job, prompting an investigation. Patrick says these actions prompted his bosses to retaliate.

His certification to guard nuclear materials was revoked pending a review — making it impossible for Patrick to work as a courier.

A slew of psychological evaluations came next, with one contradicting the next, records show. His supervisors called him a difficult employee who had not shown remorse for misusing the car.

He took his case to an appeals board in the agency — and was suspended indefinitely following agency policy.

Patrick became an unpaid federal employee.

He returned from his post near a nuclear site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., to his home town near Canton, Ohio, rented an apartment and enrolled in community college under the G.I. bill.

His supervisors offered him $250,000 to drop his appeal and quit, according to Patrick and lawyers in the case. He refused.

“I told them I don’t want the money,” Patrick said. “I want my job back.”

Joshua McConaha, spokesman for the nuclear agency, declined to comment on the offer.

On his day in administrative court, Patrick’s supervisors said he had trouble dealing with stress, was arrogant and should not keep his job. But the hearing officer found “insufficient evidence” to support those claims and said he should be reinstated.

Then Energy officials who were required to review the case sat on it. They had no deputy secretary to make a ruling, the special counsel said.

It was eight more months before Patrick was ordered back to work.

Although he’d inquired about the outcome of the hearing, Patrick had no idea during that time that he’d won his appeal. Finally, in September 2009, Deputy Secretary Daniel Poneman ordered Patrick to be recertified.

After 13 months, he was back on the payroll.

“What would a normal person think?” he said. “I beat them. Let’s get back to work.”

Not so fast.

Patrick’s bosses interpreted the ruling to mean he had to start at square one and re-apply for certification. For five months, he collected a paycheck while he waited for his paperwork to clear.

“I sat at home in Ohio,” Patrick said. “My neighbors said, ‘Why are you still here?’ I said, ‘It’s taxpayers’ money paying me to be here.’ ”

Eventually he was put on a special detail in Albuquerque to help with security training at nuclear plants. He said he sat a desk doing nothing.

Hours before he was to drive to Arkansas to repeat his firearms training, he learned he would not be recertified — again.

Yep, Patrick appealed — again. And, like before, he was suspended indefinitely.

He would have been taken off the payroll again, but he brought the case to the special counsel’s office. Officials there asked for (and got) a stay in the case while they investigated.

In August, Associate Special Counsel William E. Reukauf concluded that Patrick’s “lengthy indefinite suspensions” were a violation of federal personnel rules.

Reukauf wrote, “Rarely would an employee have the stamina or perseverance . . . to endure 13 months without pay, prevail on the merits and then endure again a potentially endless cycle of recertification, denial and indefinite suspension.”

Energy officials promised Patrick back pay.

McConaha said the agency is “committed to ensuring a process is in place to respond promptly and appropriately in any case that involves a potential violation of an employee’s rights.”

But it’s not over.

Another hearing is scheduled for Oct. 31 to determine, again, whether Patrick will be allowed to guard nuclear materials.

Meanwhile, he is still in Ohio, collecting a paycheck.

Popularity: 1% [?]

All News Government Waste

Hey, Protesters: What About Solyndra?

Posted by Adam On October - 14 - 2011 ADD COMMENTS

The one thing about the Occupy Wall Street crowd that resonates with many Americans is their opposition to bank bailouts. The idea of using our tax money to bail out millionaires is nuts.

But that’s exactly what’s happening with Solyndra. Some of the $535 million that taxpayers just lost with Solyndra is about to be used to pay off the investment of billionaire George Kaiser and other investors. These millionaires and billionaires made risky investments on Solyndra, and they lost. When rich investors make risky bets and lose, they should have to eat their losses. They certainly shouldn’t get paid back by taxpayers. But these friends of Obama are about to be. That’s not only unethical, it’s illegal.

It’s in direct violation of the 2005 energy law, which clearly states that taxpayer loans get paid back before private loans on these projects. Otherwise, taxpayer money will be siphoned into the pockets of the rich guys. But someone in the Obama administration made a deal with rich Obama fundraisers to go around the law.

If the Wall Street protesters are really mad about taxpayers subsidizing millionaires and billionaires, than they should bring the house down on the Obama administration for subsidizing a risky investment made by a billionaire friend of the president. But so far we haven’t heard a peep from the protesters about it.

Time to speak up and shout out, or shut up and go home.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Barack Obama Government Waste

Lawmaker: Administration Officials Knew Solyndra ‘Destined to Fail’

Posted by Adam On October - 14 - 2011 ADD COMMENTS

WASHINGTON – The head of the House panel probing the federal loan to failed solar company Solyndra charged Friday that some senior officials inside the Obama administration knew the loan was a “bad bet that was destined to fail,” but were ignored by the Department of Energy.

Rep. Cliff. Stearns, R-Fla., chairman of the House oversight subcommittee on the Energy and Commerce Committee, cited newly disclosed emails in outlining the sharp divisions inside the administration over the loan. Stearns spoke before calling two Treasury officials to testify about their involvement and knowledge of the loan, which was approved in 2009 and restructured earlier this year in such a way that put investors, not taxpayers, at the front of the line for recovering money in case of bankruptcy.

Stearns said it appears Treasury officials “were not sufficiently consulted” about that restructuring. When they sounded “warning signs,” he said, “they were ignored.”

Recent emails … clearly show that numerous members of the Obama administration from the most senior levels of the West Wing down to the career professionals at (the Office of Management and Budget) and (Department of Energy) knew that Solyndra was a bad bet that was destined to fail,” Stearns said.

Newly released emails show that the Treasury Department was concerned that the loan restructuring, approved earlier this year, could violate federal law.

Administration officials have defended the loan restructuring, saying that without an infusion of cash earlier this year, Solyndra would likely have faced immediate bankruptcy, putting more than 1,000 people out of work.

Even with the federal help, Solyndra closed its doors Aug. 31 and let all of its workers go.

Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee say the hearing Friday will focus on whether the Energy Department broke the law when it agreed to restructure Solyndra’ s debt in February.

The lawmakers cite emails showing that Mary Miller, an assistant treasury secretary, said the deal could violate the law because it put investors’ interests ahead of taxpayers. Miller told a top White House budget official that she had advised that any proposed restructuring be reviewed by the Justice Department before it was approved.

“To our knowledge that has never happened,” Miller wrote in an Aug. 17 memo to the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Emails released last week show a wide disagreement among officials at the Energy Department, Treasury and Office of Management and Budget about Solyndra. Officials at the latter two agencies raised questions about the quality of the DOE’s loan-vetting process and the special treatment Solyndra was given as its finances deteriorated.

Gary Grippo, a deputy assistant treasury secretary, and Gary Burner, chief financial officer at the Federal Financing Bank, are expected to testify. The financing bank made a $528 million loan to Solyndra in 2009.

The Fremont, Calif.-based company was the first renewable-energy company to receive a loan guarantee under a stimulus-law program to encourage green energy and was frequently touted by the Obama administration as a model. Obama visited the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters last year, and Vice President Joe Biden spoke by satellite at its groundbreaking.

Since then, the company’s implosion and revelations that the administration hurried budget officials to finish their review of the loan in time for the September 2009 groundbreaking has become an embarrassment for Obama.

Damien LaVera, a spokesman for the Energy Department, said Thursday that the loan restructuring was legal.

“Based on a careful analysis of the terms of the restructuring, the career officials in the DOE loan program determined that the restructuring was legal and that it did not require Justice Department review,” LaVera said.

Energy Department officials say the statute cited by the Treasury Department requires the Justice Department to approve a loan “compromise,” in which a borrower is allowed to pay back less than the full amount of the loan. That was not the case in the Solyndra deal, they said.

And while one portion of the law makes clear that a federal debt cannot be subordinate to other financing at the time of the loan, another section provides officials with broad authority to take action to protect the taxpayer in an emergency situation, they said.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu approved the restructuring in February.

Popularity: 3% [?]

All News Barack Obama Government Waste Politics

Republicans Fear Energy Department ‘Rushing’ $5 Billion in Loans Ahead of Friday Deadline ( Sounds like a great idea )

Posted by Adam On September - 29 - 2011 ADD COMMENTS

The clock is ticking on the controversial loan program that supported bankrupt solar firm Solyndra. But Republicans are concerned the account could dispense more than $5 billion in additional clean-energy loans before a Friday deadline.

While the Department of Energy insists the projects are being properly vetted, some lawmakers are accusing the government of rushing to finalize the remaining loans in the pipeline.

“Solyndra was the product of a bad bet rushed out the door and taxpayers are now on the hook,” said Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee. “We cannot afford (the Department of Energy) rushing out more Solyndras in these final hours.”

The department on Wednesday approved two loan guarantees worth more than $1 billion for solar energy projects in Nevada and Arizona. The government completed a $737 million loan guarantee for Tonopah Solar Energy for a 110-megawatt solar tower on federal land near Tonopah, Nev., and a $337 million guarantee for Mesquite Solar 1 to develop a 150-megawatt solar plant near Phoenix.

The approvals follow statements by Obama administration officials that the government will continue to invest in renewable energy projects despite the controversy surrounding Solyndra. That company was green-lighted for taxpayer-backed loans in 2009 — it filed for bankruptcy early this month after receiving $528 million in federal loans. The company is now the subject of several investigations.

Ahead of the Friday deadline on the loan program, the Energy Department still has nine projects left to finalize, though it estimates at least two of them will probably not be approved by the deadline. The pending proposals include wind, solar and biofuel projects across the country.

Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera said the two projects approved Wednesday had extensive reviews that included scrutiny of the parent companies’ finances. In a letter earlier this month to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., an Energy Department official stressed that the projects were considered “after a rigorous due diligence process and extensive inter-agency consultation.”

“It’s important to remember that Solyndra, for example, was the first loan out of this program and that the program has continued and evolved as it’s gone on,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters on Wednesday.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu also touted the latest loans as a way for the United States to stay competitive on the global energy market.

“If we want to be a player in the global clean energy race, we must continue to invest in innovative technologies that enable commercial-scale deployment of clean, renewable power like solar,” he said in a statement.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is a strong supporter of the Nevada project, which he says will help his state’s economy recover. Former Gov. Jim Gibbons, a Republican, also supported the project.

But Republicans in Congress are keeping a close eye on the program. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, on Wednesday asked the office overseeing stimulus-law money whether it had any prior signs that Solyndra was in trouble and what it plans to do about the $528 million in funding that went to the company.

A government watchdog group said the Solyndra bankruptcy shows the need for greater oversight of all the department’s loan guarantee programs.

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

“Candidly, it might be time for the federal government to rethink the whole idea of loan programs,” Schatz added, calling the government’s track record on loan guarantees “lousy.”

Popularity: 4% [?]

All News Barack Obama Government Waste

The Secret Government Bank That’s Financing More Solyndras ( wow sounds like this should be illegal )

Posted by Adam On September - 28 - 2011 ADD COMMENTS

Sitting at the center of the Solyndra scandal is an off-balance-sheet bank at the Treasury Department that dates back to 1973.

This little-known government bank, the Federal Financing Bank [FFB], had a zero balance in 2008 for green energy projects, but now, with little Congressional oversight, it is giving out billions of dollars in loans to White House pet projects often at dirt-cheap interest rates below 1%.

In July alone, the government bank, which had $61 billion in assets, lent nearly three quarters of a billion dollars in taxpayer funds with no Congressional checks and balances.

Plus the bank is funding the insolvent U.S. Post Office; the White House’s expensive green car projects at Ford Motor, Nissan and Tesla Motors; a $485 million loan to an expensive solar project that’s lost $160 million over the last three years that’s backed by Google, BP and Chevron; plus the FFB is funding the teetering HOPE housing bailout program, which gives delinquent mortgage borrowers breaks on their loans.

And according to KPMG’s audit report of the bank, the FFB is losing billions of dollars in taxpayer money because it is forgoing collecting interest costs on already inexpensive loans that are financing projects at agencies like the Agriculture Dept.

What’s scary for taxpayers is this: The FFB can borrow unlimited amounts of taxpayer money from the Treasury for these kinds of political pet projects. Under the 1973 “FFB Act, the bank may, with the approval of the Secretary, borrow without limit from the Treasury,” says the bank’s audited statements from KPMG.

The Treasury Department’s inspector general is now investigating the bank over its $528 million loan to Solyndra. FFB’s chairman of the board is Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, and the bank’s board executives are Treasury officials.

Who is getting the FFB’s green energy money? As the White House and Democrats in Congress rail against tax breaks for oil companies, the FFB gave taxpayer loans to green companies with high cash burn that were spilling red ink.

For instance, Solyndra was still getting loans from the FFB up until it filed for bankruptcy. It got $3 million in loans at a 0.89% rate just a month and a half before it filed for bankruptcy protection.

The FFB is also giving loans to risky solar companies as well as to a money-losing solar energy outfit backed by companies such as Google, Morgan Stanley, Chevron and BP that has spilled $160 million in red ink for the last three years.

In the month of July alone, the FFB gave a $12.5 million loan to Abound Solar; 60% of Abound’s balance sheet will come from federal taxpayers, or $400 million in guaranteed federal loans.

FFB also gave a $117,330 loan to the struggling Kahuku Wind Power and more than $77 million to the Solar Partners companies, which are due $485 million in White House approved loans.

The Solar Partners companies are units of BrightSource Energy, which is building a massive solar-powered energy plant near the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino, California.

BrightSource lost $45 million in 2008, $44 million in 2009, and $72 million in 2010, even though it has rich backers that include Google, Chevron, Morgan Stanley and BP, among others, says FOX News analyst James Farrell.

Besides the green energy projects, the FFB provides a backdoor government bailout of the US Post Office, which has been spilling red ink. The FFB has lent the US Post Office so far $12.6 billion. The Post Office faces an estimated $10 billion shortfall this year, as the Internet, companies like FedEx and UPS, and high retiree health-benefit costs slice into its bottom line.

And the government bank gave loans to car and car parts manufacturers to retrofit their plants to make green cars. The FFB lent Ford Motor $163 million for its green car programs. The FFB is now financing projects at Fisker Automotive, Nissan North America and Tesla Motors, with $528.6 million, $1.4 billion and $465 million in federal loans, respectively.

However, the FFB’s balance sheet is backed by U.S. taxpayers, “except for loans to the U.S. Postal Service,” says KPMG’s audited statements for the bank. Because you, U.S. taxpayers, are the cushion for the bank, unlike other banks, the FFB “does not maintain a reserve for loan losses,” says the KPMG report.

Not booking loan loss reserves would get any other bank in trouble with federal bank regulators such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Why can the FFB get away with this?

Because the KPMG report says the bank told it in true Pollyannish fashion that “no future credit-related losses are expected,” even though Solyndra clearly disputes that optimistic bureaucratic resolve. (The bank did earn $449.5 million for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2010, up slightly from $444.2 million in fiscal 2009.)

Why was this federal government bank created in the first place? Congress launched the FFB in 1973 to “reduce the costs of Federal and federally assisted borrowings,” smoothing the way for the government’s fiscal policies — fiscal policies which at the time were wading into the private credit markets like never before.

At the time, the federal government first began to see an avalanche of Congressionally approved off-budget financing for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Sallie Mae. These quasi-government operations began to help grease loans for housing and for students by aiding loans securitized as bonds in the secondary markets. Banks packaged these loans as securities and sold them on to Fannie, Freddie and Sallie Mae.

These bonds though began to compete with Treasury securities, and Congress at the time feared Treasury would have to offer higher yields to attract investors away from those securities. The Vietnam war was still going, and the government was struggling to pay for the war and at the same time was battling a deep recession that had hit the U.S. economy, along with an oil shock exacerbated when OPEC plus Egypt, Syria and Tunisia hit the U.S. with an oil embargo due to its support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War with Egypt and Syria.

So to keep the government’s borrowing costs low, Congress launched the FFB and gave it broad statutory authority to purchase any “bonds issued, sold, or guaranteed by federal agencies,” says KPMG’s audit report. The bank then became a vehicle through which all sorts of federal agencies could finance their programs.

Since then, the FFB has helped finance a broad range of government operations, from agricultural to military programs, to now green energy projects.

Congress almost got the FFB in hot water beginning in 2006 when lawmakers pressured then Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to open the window at the FFB to help finance student loans.
At the time, Sallie Mae was posting losses as students in droves began defaulting on their high-priced college loans.

A slew of lenders, about a seventh of the student loan market at the time, had stopped giving federally guaranteed student loans. Sallie Mae then pressured lawmakers such as Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) to give student lenders a bailout via the Federal Financing Bank, but President George W. Bush frowned on that, and the effort went nowhere.

And now it’s the White House’s use of the FFB for green energy projects that will likely raise eyebrows.

The FFB lent no money to green companies backed by Department of Energy guarantees from 2007 to 2008, even though it could have done so starting in 2007 under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, signed into law under President George W. Bush.

That act authorized $42 billion in federal green energy loans, notes FOX News analyst Farrell.
Under the 2005 law, the government could make federal loans for companies battling greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency and renewable energy, as well as nuclear power projects.

The FFB then began giving green loans backed by the Dept. of Energy after the Obama Administration’s stimulus bill of 2009 was enacted. After stimulus was signed into law by President Barack Obama, the FFB then began funding clean energy programs, backed by $2.4 billion appropriated by Congress. Under this program, Solyndra got $528 million.

The FFB doesn’t just fund green energy projects. It also funds the Home Ownership Preservation Entity (HOPE) Fund, enacted under the Bush Administration to help distressed borrowers avoid foreclosure by reducing their mortgage payments.

The bank is going full bore in helping to fund the White House’s foreclosure bailouts via buying HOPE bonds, a program that could hit $300 billion in federal costs.

The bonds essentially give investors a stake in government housing bailouts. But what should give taxpayers pause is this: the Treasury Secretary can issue HOPE bonds “without any limitations as to the purchaser of the issuance,” KPMG’s audited statements note.

Translation: The Treasury can willy nilly issue these bonds, and the FFB then buys the HOPE bonds that investors don’t’ want.

“Due to the cost of issuing special purpose bonds to the public, the Secretary of the Treasury has decided to issue the HOPE bonds to the bank,” KPMG notes in its report.

That means those bonds now sit on FFB’s balance sheet, more than $492 million worth. “The bank (FFB) borrowed funds from Treasury,” says KPMG’s audit, “to purchase the HOPE bonds.”

The amounts involved can rise to $300 billion, because the Hope for Homeowners Act authorizes Treasury to issue up to $300 billion in HOPE bonds. “FFB does not have the money to buy the bonds, so it has to borrow money from Treasury to buy the bonds,” notes FOX News analyst Farrell.

However, KPMG notes in its report that “the purchase of HOPE bonds is consistent with the core mission of the Bank.”

The FFB also acts as essentially a slush bank for federal loans, an operation that helps clean up the balance sheets of other federal agencies. KPMG notes that the “lending policy of the bank is flexible enough to preclude the need for any accumulation of pools of funds by agencies.”
But the FFB also lets federal agencies slide on interest costs they owe the bank on loans, even though their interest rates are dirt cheap.

For instance, the FFB has been hit with losses on loans to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, loans the Agriculture Dept. received to service rural utilities. The Agriculture Dept. is stiffing the FBB on interest it owes on these loans, a cumulative $1.7 billion in losses here.

The bank also lets the General Services Administration [GSA], as well as “Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” and the Veteran Administration slide on interest costs on their loans, too. The bank lets them defer interest costs “on their loans until future periods,” the KMPG report says.

Popularity: 4% [?]

All News Barack Obama Government Government Waste

Arizona Woman Fighting for Health Care for Immigrant Husband Who Suffered Brain Damage ( No way US Taxpayers should have to cover this )

Posted by Adam On September - 28 - 2011 ADD COMMENTS

A Phoenix woman is fighting to get health care for her husband, an undocumented immigrant who was in the process of obtaining legal status before he suffered brain damage while playing soccer.

Evelyn Saenz-Cornelio, 23, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that her husband, Jesus Armando Cornelio of Mexico, collapsed Sept. 19 while playing soccer at a park with his 13-year-old brother.

Saenz-Cornelio, who was born in Mexico but was raised in Phoenix and is now a U.S. citizen, said that doctors at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center told her that her husband’s brain was without oxygen for about 13 minutes after he collapsed, causing severe brain damage.

She said Cornelio, a 23-year-old construction worker, had obtained an employment authorization card and a Social Security card from the U.S. government and had an appointment this week for a final interview to get a permanent resident card.

She said the hospital told her Friday that Corelio’s health care bill was at $120,000 so far and that Arizona’s Medicaid program wouldn’t cover his health care costs, telling her that she would either have to take him to Mexico for treatment or put him in hospice care, which could mean death.

But Saenz-Cornelio said the hospital gave her husband a one-week extension Tuesday. After that, she said she isn’t sure what she’s going to do.

Spokespeople at Banner Good Samaritan released a statement saying that its staff is focused on Cornelio’s care and could not comment further to protect Cornelio’s privacy.

Monica Coury, a spokeswoman at Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, Arizona’s Medicaid program, said federal law prohibits undocumented immigrants from health care coverage. Even if Cornelio had obtained the permanent resident card he was seeking, an immigrant must be a legal permanent resident for five years to be covered, she said.

“They’re federal rules, it’s not a state issue,” Coury said. “All this individual has is employment authorization and a Social Security number. That doesn’t meet the requirement.”

Saenz-Cornelio said doctors gave her little hope last week that her husband could recover but that over the weekend he made astonishing strides, including opening his eyes, squeezing family members’ hands, yawning and coughing — all things he hadn’t done since Sept. 19.

She said although Cornelio has not spoken, he is recognizing people in the room and responding to some of their prompting.

“I have to learn to be strong, and right now that’s what I keep in my head: ‘He wants you to be strong, to stay positive,’” she said. “I have to have faith that little by little, he’s going to get better and show the doctors and nurses that he wants to be here.”

She said Cornelio came to Phoenix when he was 10 years old in 1998, and that the two first met in the sixth grade. They began dating at 16 and were high school sweethearts.

They married at 22 and were trying to have children and get Cornelio legal status in the U.S. when he collapsed playing soccer.

She said Cornelio has played soccer all his life and had initially qualified for a scholarship to attend Phoenix College. But it turned out that he was ineligible because of a 2006 voter-approved Arizona law that says illegal immigrants can’t get in-state tuition or financial aid funded by state coffers.

Saenz-Cornelio described Cornelio as always having a positive attitude and being incredibly responsible.

“He was like an adult stuck in a teenage body ever since I met him — his way of thinking, looking at life, his goals, his plans for himself and me,” she said.

“He’s my best friend, he’s my husband,” she added through tears. “He’s my everything.”

Lydia Guzman, an immigrant-rights advocate, said Cornelio’s story shows the importance of solving some of the nation’s toughest issues, including immigration and health care.

“This young man is stuck in the middle of all this turmoil,” she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Popularity: 3% [?]

All News Government Government Waste Immigration

While Teachers Take Pay Cuts, Their Boss Rakes In $1.5 Million

Posted by Adam On September - 27 - 2011 ADD COMMENTS

Shortly after we wrote about Larry Powell, the Fresno superintendent who decided to give up his salary to save his school district money, our renewed faith in superintendents took a major hit.

Enter John Covington, the incoming superintendent of Michigan’s Education Achievement Authority, a new district comprised entirely of schools that have performed poorly on state tests. Covington’s just-signed contract has him set to earn more than $1.5 million in salary and bonuses. (PDF) And of course, Covington is hardly alone with his cushy salary: According to a survey by the Council of the Great City Schools (PDF) the average urban superintendent made $239,000 last year, and that doesn’t include bonuses, housing and car allowances or hefty retirement packages.

The Detroit Free Press reports that Covington “will be paid a $175,000 signing bonus and a $225,000 salary” during his first year, and $325,000 in salary in his second year. If he “meets yet-to-be-determined goals, he could make more than $425,000 in each of the last two years.”

The news is particularly troubling because most of the EAA schools come from Detroit, which has faced such severe budget deficits that earlier this year the state-appointed emergency financial manager, Robert Bobb, announced a plan to close half the city’s schools. In June, again citing budget cuts, DPS sent layoff notices to all 10,000 of its employees, including 5,500 teachers. It’s pretty astounding that given the dire budget situation, the state can cough up the cash to pay Covington such a lavish salary.

Why are superintendents paid so much? The common argument is that in order to attract top talent, districts need to highly compensate their top executives. Indeed, superintendents oversee multimillion-dollar budgets and make tough financial and policy decisions—the job is the education equivalent of running a business. But it’s still a public sector job—President Obama earns a comparatively paltry $400,000 annual salary for running the entire country.

News of Covington’s salary has to be a bitter pill to swallow for all the Michigan teachers who agreed to reduced salary and benefit packages as part of the “shared sacrifice” they were told was necessary to keep the schools running. It’s inexcusable that they were asked to make the sacrifice so their boss wouldn’t have to.

Popularity: 2% [?]

All News Government Waste

…do you think it's good or bad pork?

Obama talks out of both sides of his Mouth. How can he be trusted

Obama’s green robber barons

KUHNER: Obama threatens religious liberty

Top Ten Union Corruption Stories of the Year

Obama rejects new oil pipeline, blames Congress ( Lol hes been reviewing it for 3 Years )

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) from doling out big dollars–$236,830, to be exact–to members of their staffs. ( They did such a good they deserve our money lol fkn crooks )

Congress kicks budget can down the road – again ( Lets fire them all and start over )

Government Printing Office ends 2011 in the black

PA workers raking in big bucks ( Public Unions are slowly strangling us )

Sen. McCaskill Requests Probe Into $433M Smallpox Drug Contract

Solyndra Case Reveals Gateway Between Administration Loans, Obama Allies

Fannie, Freddie Execs Defend Pay Packages ( So tired of hearing about how they need that kind of pay to get good people. What bs )

Morning Bell: Debunking Obama’s Latest Jobs Myth

Hey ‘Occupy’, Whatever Happened to Starting at the Bottom and Working Your Way Up?

Scandal-Plagued Former California City Official Sues City for Failing to Pay $1.5 Million Salary

Second Energy Department-backed company goes bankrupt ( You have to love the way they are spending out money )

Next Bailout Target: Netflix Shareholders? ( Writer makes a good point )

Govt. Worker Paid to Stay Home

Hey, Protesters: What About Solyndra?

Lawmaker: Administration Officials Knew Solyndra ‘Destined to Fail’

Republicans Fear Energy Department ‘Rushing’ $5 Billion in Loans Ahead of Friday Deadline ( Sounds like a great idea )

The Secret Government Bank That’s Financing More Solyndras ( wow sounds like this should be illegal )

Arizona Woman Fighting for Health Care for Immigrant Husband Who Suffered Brain Damage ( No way US Taxpayers should have to cover this )

While Teachers Take Pay Cuts, Their Boss Rakes In $1.5 Million

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