Supoena The White House

Looks like Fred Upton has run out of patience with the White House on Solyndra, where a half-billion taxpayer dollars got flushed down the low-flush toilet by the Department of Energy. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will give the Obama administration one more day to produce staffers for depositions with investigators to find out how that loss was allowed to happen, or Upton will call for a vote to authorize subpoenas:

Congressional Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are putting together subpoenas for five White House aides who allegedly worked to pour more than $500 million in federal loans guarantees into Solyndra, a California solar power company that has since gone defunct. It filed for bankruptcy last year despite the loan support.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee plans to meet on Friday to issue subpoenas for five executive branch employees that they say were involved in the Department of Energy loan given to Solyndra. This will be the third subpoena the committee has considered to obtain information or testimony regarding the Solyndra case.
The staffers being targeted include Kevin Carroll, Kelly Colyar and Fouad Saad of the Office of Management and Budget, Heather Zichal, a White House aide who worked on energy and Aditya Kumar, who worked for Rahm Emanuel in the West Wing and whose name appears in emails on the subject of Solyndra.
Emanuel himself is not mentioned as a potential target of the Republican inquiry, but Kumar is closely tied to the former Chief of Staff. The now Chicago Mayor said he would cooperate if he were ever subpoenaed in the case.
The Committee Chairman, Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) said in a statement “Friday marks one year since we launched our investigation into the half billion dollar Solyndra loan guarantee, and still, the Obama administration will not even answer the most basic questions about what took place. The level of White House obstruction goes so far that they have blocked the committee from having a simple conversation with those executive branch employees who know the most about Solyndra’s loan guarantee.”

It’s not just the fact that the Obama administration made a bad call on the green-tech stimulus loan, an effort authorized by Congress. Upton and his committee want to know why the DoE approved that loan over the objections of its own auditors, how it managed to get a sweetheart interest rate despite its known financial problems, and most importantly why the DoE broke the law by subordinating the taxpayer stake in Solyndra to that of Obama bundler George Kaiser.
So far, the White House has offered precious little of the transparency they loudly proclaim when it comes to Congressional oversight, especially on Solyndra and Operation Fast and Furious. Don’t expect that to change before tomorrow.

Court Order Allows Protesters to Return to Zuccotti Park

OWS Gets Moved On..

Court Order Allows Protesters to Return to Zuccotti Park

Urban Campers Without Plan (except to smoke a joint or two)

The OWS Zeitgiest...But They Don't Know For Sure..

October 19, 2011The OWS Dream  By Steve McCann

The Occupy Wall Street demonstrators, while all over the spectrum in their demands, have one thread in common (beyond their inconceivable level of ignorance): they hate capitalism, are spoiled by living in a prosperous society, and have a socialist/Marxist vision of utopia. While refusing to admit the failure of this mindset in other nations, the American incarnation appears to be convinced that by their sheer determination and self-assessed superior intellect, they know the key to a "fair and just" society: themselves and redistribution. It is little wonder why Barack Obama was so quick to endorse this juvenile and narcissistic movement; he would be there organizing it if weren't for his day job.

Unfortunately, in the United States, there are just not enough true-believers, so a well-covered combination carnival atmosphere and faux revolution are in order. Much is dependent on the mainstream media, living in their own fog of self-importance, to play up the so-called virtues of the movement and their really, really genuine empathy with the downtrodden exploited by the cigar-chomping oppressors of mankind -- anyone who may own a business, or worse, work for a bank or on Wall Street. The very sound of the word "corporation" conjures up the specter of Godzilla trampling innocent women and children as it devours anything in its path. Accordingly, there must be a better, more equitable economic and political system to replace capitalism, the scourge of the human race.
To them, there is. And this success story is only 1,300 miles south of the United States: Venezuela, the home of Hugo Chávez, the darling of the Hollywood left and the Occupy Wall Street crowd. You see, Hugo really hates capitalism and those who pursue wealth and create jobs, so he has nationalized hundreds of companies and trumped up charges against their owners, all in the name of social justice. There are now virtually no privately owned major corporations (so that evil word can now be struck from the Venezuelan lexicon).
As a further benefit to the Venezuelan society, nearly all of the owners of these businesses and the vast majority of the country's private sector have shut up shop and fled the country, taking their capital with them. Not to worry, however -- Venezuela must now import many goods it used to produce, as non-oil exports have ground to a halt. Petroleum exports used to account for 78% of the nation's dollar intake a mere 10 years ago; it now accounts for 92%.
However, the ideal socialism of Hugo is also helping the nation with its cash needs by selling even less oil now than in 1998. As part of the "revolution," the former managers and operators of the state oil firm PDVSA had to be replaced -- and they were, by good Chavez loyalists. The result: oil production has fallen from 3.3 million barrels per day in 1998 to 2.25 million barrels today. However, because of domestic needs and commitments to regional allies, 1.0 million barrels are sold at subsidized prices, leaving just 1.25 million barrels to be sold at full export prices. Not a problem; instead of reinvesting cash in the industry for the future, just spend nearly all of the money on subsidizing domestic oil, clothing, and a myriad of newly imported products that were once produced in-country by those evil capitalists.
Unfortunately, human nature sometimes rears its ugly head, and black-market trading in currency and hard-to-get goods sprang up as the result of the arbitrary peg of the Venezuelan bolivar against the dollar, necessitated by an effort to maintain a higher value for the oil exports while in reality the market value was two or three times lower. The solution is simple in socialist nirvana: black-market trading is now punishable by up to seven years in jail. That crackdown worked, as foreign exchange is now scarce and Venezuelans have begun asking friends from abroad to send them necessities such as diapers, sanitary towels, and baby milk. But Hugo and his fellow-travelers really do have it all under control. Just ask them or any of their good friends in the U.S.
In a development that should warm the hearts of the public-sector unions in the United States, the government of Venezuela, in a further attempt to even out oil and currency fluctuations, has looked to the understanding of the workers. So much so that public employees have staged frequent protests over unpaid salaries, worsening conditions, and a freeze on collective bargaining. Certainly not as repressive as Wisconsin and that awful Governor Walker.
But Hugo, if nothing else, is resourceful. His primary solution to these short-term problems is to borrow from the Chinese. Since 2008 the country has borrowed $12 billion, and China is being repaid in discounted oil shipments, cutting the annual oil revenue by a further 20%.
But in what can be described only as a foreign capitalist plot, inflation has intruded on this idyllic paradise. Venezuela has the world's highest inflation rate. By mid-2011, food prices were almost nine times higher than when price controls were introduced eight years ago. In 2010, consumer prices had increased by 28% (2009: 27%; 2008: 19%). (For those in the Occupy Wall Street crowd that incurred $200,000 in student loans in order to major in gender studies, that means a Starbucks 12-oz. latte that cost $3.00 in 2008 would cost $5.80 today.)
Enter our hero, Hugo. President Chávez has used legislative powers granted him by parliament to decree a "Fair Price and Costs Law." He has made inflation illegal, and the state will set "fair prices" across the entire economy. Bravo -- why didn't Jimmy Carter think of that in the late 1970s? Those loyal Venezuelans that cannot and will not be able to find cooking oil or powdered milk or sugar will no doubt be assuaged in their unending search for life's necessities.
So the Occupy Wall Street crowd and their cheerleaders in the White House, the media, and academia are right: let's get rid of capitalism. Then the United States can have an economy that has shrunk by seven percent since 2007, whose GDP per capita has fallen by nearly nine percent since 2007, whose inflation rate exceeds twenty-eight percent, whose real unemployment is stuck above sixteen percent or higher, and whose people are relegated to a daily search for life's basic necessities.
Or perhaps they and Barack Obama might consider growing up, learning some facts, and leaving their egos and narcissism behind to concentrate on growing the American economy and not government and the entitlement mentality.

Go Ahead Dems, Align Yourself With OWS!

USCG Warns Staff To Avoid Occupy Wall Street Groups After Incident

posted at 9:25 am on October 14, 2011 by Ed Morrissey
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And here we were, being skeptical that the Occupy Movement was anything like the 1960s:

Coast Guard member spit on near Occupy Boston tents: MyFoxBOSTON.com

The Coast Guard in Boston confirmed that a woman in uniform was harassed and spat upon near Occupy Boston protesters.
The woman was walking to the train and said protesters spit on her twice, called her foul names and even threw a water bottle at her.
Now, the Coast Guard is warning all staff working on Atlantic Avenue to avoid those protesters while in uniform.

A spokesman for Occupy Boston tells Fox that anyone could have shown up at their protest to spit on and harass Coast Guard officers in an attempt to “defamate” the movement. Uh, sure. Two men spent time at Occupy Boston just on the off chance that a uniformed member of the armed forces might walk by so that they could spit on her — just to discredit the movement?
As Fox notes, it’s not the first time that OB leaders have used that excuse:

More than 140 Occupy Boston protesters were arrested earlier this week for refusing to cooperate with police on the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
The peaceful protestors say the violence wasn’t supposed to happen and a group of anarchists were the ones rebelling. They say they do not condone that type of behavior.

I know that this is already going to be the first reaction to this story among readers, but let me state it anyway. Had even one Tea Party rally resulted in 140 arrests, defecation on police cars, speakers calling for a violent French Revolution-style change in society, or members of the military getting attacked with spit and epithets, would the national media have offered such a balanced report — or would the media have used any of these incidents to warn America about the latent hate and violence in the movement?

Obama's Army of Occupiers

Sorry, not in any form can these people be compared to the Tea Party.

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum on the Mall was abruptly closed Saturday afternoon after a “large group of protesters” tried to push past security guards and enter the museum, a spokeswoman said.

A demonstrator lies on the ground at an entrance to the National Air and Space Museum after police pepper-sprayed a group of protesters trying to get into the museum Saturday. (Jose Luis Magana - AP)
At least one demonstrator was pepper-sprayed by a museum guard in the confrontation, said Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas. Several witnesses said that more than a dozen people were affected by the spray.
The museum was closed at about 3:15 p.m., St. Thomas said.
Some of the protesters were affiliated with the Occupy DC demonstration that had sprung up at McPherson Square last week as an offshoot of the larger Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City, said Cody Steele, 21, an American University senior who participated in the march to the museum.
Steele said the march was planned, however, by a different but like-minded group of protesters — known as the October 2011 group — who have been camped out in Freedom Plaza since Oct. 6.

Virginia Poll Not Good News For POTUS

The Downward Spiral

Obama trails Romney, Perry in Virginia poll

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posted at 12:10 pm on September 26, 2011 by Ed Morrissey     

In 2008, Barack Obama sailed to victory over John McCain in Virginia by six points in the normally Republican state, promising “hope and change.” According to a new poll from Roanoke College in Virginia, Obama certainly brought change. The incumbent President trails both Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, and can only muster 33% support against a generic Republican — twenty points below his popular-vote percentage in 2008 (via Jim Geraghty):

With 14 months remaining until the 2012 election, Virginia’s U.S. Senate race is a statistical dead heat. Republican George Allen leads Democrat Tim Kaine 42% to 39% with 19% undecided. President Obama trails some potential Republican opponents, but he leads others. The generic (unnamed) Republican leads Obama 41% to 33%; Mitt Romney leads 45% to 37%; and Rick Perry leads by an statistically insignificant 42% to 40%. At the same time, Obama leads potential opponents Michele Bachmann (46% to 35%), Ron Paul (43% to 33%), and Sarah Palin (50% to 31%). Looking only at registered voters, none of those margins change by more than 1 percent and several do not change at all. Within two key groups, Kaine leads among Moderates (52%-30%), but Allen leads among Independents (42%-33%). Obama also performs better among Moderates and not as well with Independents.

The really bad news? Roanoke polled adults, not registered or likely voters. Democrats tend to do much better in polls that don’t screen for registration, which means that a more predictive sample would undoubtedly have produced even less pleasant results for Obama. The poll sample slightly favors Republicans, however, with a D/R/I of 26/29/29 and an oddly high proportion of unknowns (8.6%) and “others” (7.2%). In 2008, the exit poll showed a D/R/I of 39/33/27, which means that a significant number of the “other” and unknown affiliation categories may represent Democrats more strongly.
Obama has bad news pretty much across the board. His job approval rating has sunk to 39/54. In contrast, respondents give their own Representative a 41/36 approval rating, although Congress as a whole only gets 12% approval. He loses to both of the presumed Republican frontrunners, only getting to 40% against Perry and less than that against Romney, either of which would be a disaster for an incumbent. He does better against the three other Republicans mentioned above, but never gets to 50% against any of them. Obviously, this came before Herman Cain’s impressive showing in the P5 Florida straw poll, so Roanoke didn’t include him in the polling.
Getting a 33% against a generic Republican candidate shows that Obama will have a very difficult time carrying Virginia again in 2012. Don’t be surprised if his campaign only puts up enough of a campaign in the state to protect down-ticket Democrats next year. Their money will have to go towards shoring up his standing in states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

GM To HQ EV Base In China

GM isn't sitting still.

It knows that the future of electric cars will be written in China, so the company is putting its EV development in Shanghai, not Detroit.

The world's largest automaker and its Chinese partner SAIC have signed an agreement to partner on researching, designing and developing electric vehicles.

These are EV's that will not only be sold in China, but more importantly, around the world.

The xenophobic will immediately start screaming that GM is once again putting too much in China.

The truth is, GM is simply doing what is smart.

The fact is, China has been, and will continue to be, among the most aggressive countries in the world when it comes to developing electric vehicles. You combine that commitment with the fact China is, and will remain, the world's largest auto market, and it makes perfect sense for GM to make Shanghai the "home room" for developing and designing electric vehicles. When EV's take off at some point in the future, it will be China where the growth is strongest. GM, is wise to tap that potential expertise and interest as it develops over the next several years.

Of course, Americans will be quick to bash the move and say, "Sure, we bail these guys out and they run off to China to develop electric vehicles." That argument sounds good on the surface, but makes no business sense. GM has not taken any loans from the Department of Energy for developing electric cars, so it's not obligated to make Detroit the "home room" for EV development. Also, GM says it is not sharing Volt technology with the Chinese, that program and technology remain in Detroit. Finally, GM should go to the most aggressive EV market to set up its electric vehicles operations.

When I talked with GM Vice Chairman Steve Girsky in Shanghai about the deal, he summed up the move by saying, "China is, in my opinion on the leading edge of this. They really have an electrification policy. They're going to put a lot of infrastructure in place. They're throwing a lot of money at it, and they're encouraging, basically, EV's to come into this market."

This does not mean GM will build electric cars in China and export them to the US in large numbers. It plans to build in the markets where it sell electric and plug-in electric cars.

But make no mistake, as we've said for some time, the future road of electric cars rolls through China. GM is wise to set up a shop on that road.

You Animal!

When Pigs Fly