COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
We all always knew in our hearts that Hillary was more of a man than B-HO.
ReplyDeleteDidn't we.
In this headache filled world it ought to be a war crime to bomb an aspirin factory.
DeletePretty neat.
ReplyDeleteHillary states the obvious, that she as SOS is responsible for security. That certainly qualifies as a “No Shit” you don’t say award.
Then we have Barack at Defcon 1 looking for a target, any target in Libya, to show the cheering mob that he still knows how to roll the bones.
The media will love it.
ReplyDeleteObama needs to bomb the living bejesus out of someone and then get back to work for the American people. Nothing hasty mind you, best to wait to see how tomorrow’s debate goes. Save it sort of thing. It is what it is.
ReplyDeleteIn a major development related to the complex internal American politics, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton takes responsibility for the US consulate attack in Benghazi on September 11.
ReplyDelete...
"These were people who I care deeply about. I knew Chris Stevens.
You could almost pick the date, couldn't you?
ReplyDeleteHow about the Friday before the vote? Friday, November the 2nd. About 3:00 in the Evening Central Standard time.
In time for the 5:00 News. :)
Somebody gonna die. :)
DeleteNot a Friday afternoon, too people drinking after work.
DeleteMake it Thursday, mid day, better coverage.
Then again . . . . The day of the "Foreign Policy Debate" might be better, eh?
DeleteThe TV Talkers, sitting around, an hour before the debate, gabbing inanely . . . . . . This Just In . . . .
Delete:)
Rufus, you're hired!
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAO4fH6g0g0
ReplyDeleteHillary for President
She may not be able to guard a diplomat, but by God she can wipe out Iran.
Is the Secretary of State responsible for the security of the diplomats? She can't command Marines. She should have sent the requests on to Obama, if she did not do that. But maybe she, or someone under her, did do that.
ReplyDeleteWho knows?
?
They weren't at the "Embassy," Bob. In fact, there's some doubt as to whether it was even a Consulate.
DeleteEver wonder about the evolution of “bejesus”. It is short for “praise be Jesus”.
ReplyDeleteI must have been an early candidate for salvation. My father, who never wasted time in Church except for funerals, baptisms, weddings etc., thought I needed special attention and would drop me off at mass and then pick me up after it was over.
When I got to first grade, I was stunned to learn that school was in the basement of the same church where I had been fascinated by the stained glass and dulcet sounds of Latin.
It was a very conservative parish and the good sisters had us begin the day with mass. That put me in a continuous state of grace from Sunday through Friday. Of course I longed for summer break but was thwarted when my mother put me in Baptist summer school just in case.
But I digress. One of the first lessons Sister Anastatia taught me was how to greet a sister or priest in the morning; “praise be Jesus Christ, good morning father (sister).”
I was standing outside of the church talking to Sister Anasatia and wanted to impress her as father headed down the sidewalk towards us. I flubbed my lines and said, Jesus Christ, here comes father.”
:)
ReplyDeleteYour mother must have been a wise woman, too.
"As President of the United States, it’s pretty clear to me that I’m responsible for folks who are working in the federal government and you know, Harry Truman said the buck stops with you."
ReplyDeleteThat’s what the President said back in July. In the same interview, he went on to say, “one of the things you learn is, you are ultimately responsible for the conduct of your operations.”
Except when it stops with Hillary.
I wuz just a run of the mill Jarhead, so I had to look it up. It verified what I suspected -
ReplyDeleteThe formal and permanent use of Marines as security guards began with the Foreign Service Act of 1946, which authorized the Secretary of Navy to, upon the request of the Secretary of State, assign Marines to serve as custodians under the supervision of the senior diplomatic officer at a diplomatic post.
I'm sure, truth be told, that the majority of Diplomats would rather have contract civilian guards than Marines. The lines of Command would tend to get a little hazy, and Marines can get a little prickly at times.
DeleteFrom what I'm reading, the Marines are mostly there to protect the equipment (electronics, and such.) "Bodyguarding" the staff would be secondary to their primary responsibility.
DeleteThere was, I remember, quite a kerfuffle at one of our embassies right after 9-11. The Ambassador was hosting some sort of soiree, and wanted to reassure the guests with an "armed Marine Guard."
DeleteSo, the Marine showed up, resplendent in his dress blues, and looking dead serious. Too serious. The Ambassador (ess?) told the Marine to take of his hat (we call it a 'cover.') The Marine said, "I can't do that, Sir." Yikes!
The Ambassadress (or) said, "Marine, take off that hat!!" The Marines said, "I'm sorry, ma'am (sir?) I can't do that." Double Yikes!
Outrage ensued. Corporals of the Guard were called. The Corporal of the Guard said, "He can't do that." Holy fucking Moly. Court Martials, and Hangings were threatened.
Finally, the Occifer of the Day quietly informed the hyperventilating Foggy Bottom Potentate that No Marine is allowed to wear his cover indoors, unless he is "Locked and Loaded," and then he MUST remain "covered." And, that, yo highness, is just the way it fucking is.
I think it ended up in an pinkie-wrestling contest between the Secretary of State, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps. The Marine Guard was later arrested at one of the more disreputable whorehouses, drunk and disorderly, running around with his dick in his hand, shouting Fuck'em! Fuck'em! Fuck,em! FUCK'EM!!!
(okay, maybe I made that last part up) :)
:)
DeletePretty good, Rufus!
After Vice President Joe Biden, it's now the turn of the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to save the president under attack from his Republican challenger Mitt Romney over the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
ReplyDelete...
"We can't not engage," she said. "We cannot retreat."
This is cute stuff from Hillary Clinton.
DeleteThere are two problems for the administration on Libya. The first is that security was clearly inadequate, and that repeated indicators pointing to that glaring fact were wilfully ignored. Embassy security is the Secretary of State's purview, although Harry Truman installed that little reminder in the Oval Office for a reason, which is one way Clinton's being cute here.
The second problem is that the administration marshaled its propaganda in the immediate aftermath of Libya to sell a story that had more holes than a Swiss cheese. One after the other, government officials queued up to dutifully parrot the story that the President wanted us to hear. Unfortunately, other sources were providing conflicting information at an even greater rate: and this is the second piece of sly brilliance in Clinton's statement.
Firstly, by taking responsibility for the security question, Clinton somewhat insulates herself - quite properly - from the lying-to-the-public question. Admitting responsibility for a misjudgement, moreover one which fits within a narrative of supporting the White House's overarching foreign policy agenda (in which pumping necessary security into Benghazi would be tantamount to admitting we were wrong to assist anti-Gadaffi forces in Libya without vetting them and their affiliates), lends Clinton some gravitas and distances her from the more politically damaging accusation of deliberately misleading the citizens on a matter of national security.
Secondly, by taking responsibility for ANYTHING, Clinton draws a tacit contrast between herself and the Obama-Biden ticket, who continue to desperately attach blame anywhere but themselves. Thus the Vice President lies damningly during the debate about what the administration knew, and poor Jay Carney, resembling Baghdad Bob more and more each day, has to parse the word 'we' for us in unconvincing fashion.
Clinton asks us to believe that security was inadequate, a statement which both squares with the known facts and doesn't necessarily implicate her directly in any failing. Obama asks us to believe that there was enough security, it was just that darn freedom of speech that caused the trouble. This not only contradicts the facts, it offends a fundamental principle of American liberty.
The Secretary of State is a skilled and ambitious politician, who undoubtedly harbors ambitions of a run in 2016 for the top office. On Libya, she might have outmaneuvered her boss at a very opportune moment for her future career - and a very inopportune one for the man whose whole foreign policy stands or falls on the results of thorough investigation into what his administration knew, when it knew it, and how that differed from the story they told the rest of us.
Fearless prediction: With Hillary having now formally accepted blame, President Above The Fray will magnanimously volunteer at tomorrow night’s debate that, no no, it is with him that the buck ultimately stops. The White House has been holding off on doing that because they’re desperate to frame this as an internal problem at State. Now that Clinton’s gone and done that, Obama can pose as a stand-up guy and loyal boss by symbolically accepting responsibility on behalf of the people who are really at fault.
ReplyDeletehttp://hotair.com/archives/2012/10/15/hillary-i-take-responsibility-for-benghazi/
Have to watch for this move by Obama tomorrow night.
So many angles, so much to consider, so many differing personalities, so many perils, so many possibilities, I almost wish the Mohammed video would just step up and say -
I did it
Hillary would be a lovely traveling companion on the Titanic.
ReplyDelete“I want to avoid some kind of political gotcha,” Hillary said in an interview with CNN in Peru, where she arrived Monday for a diplomatic visit. She said Obama and Biden are not involved in security decisions.
ReplyDeleteHow about that sports fan? The same Obama, “I”, “I”, “I”, who personally masterminded the hit on bin Laden, is out of the loop and both Obama and Biden are not involved in security decisions.
Romney and his advisors have all day to tee this up.
A question for the day: What Planet Is Hillary Living On?
ReplyDeleteHillary Clinton on Libya: ‘Arabs across the region have firmly rejected the extremist argument’
What planet is she on? The whole region is turning into one huge steaming cauldron of jihadism, Islamic supremacism, caliphate dreams, and seething hatred of Israel.
"HIllary Clinton on Libya: ‘Arabs across the Region Have Firmly Rejected the Extremist Argument,’" by Melanie Hunter for CNS News, October 15 (thanks to Mackie):
(CNSNews.com) – During a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., on Friday Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Arabs have “firmly rejected the extremist argument.”
“By starting down the path of Democratic politics, Libyans and Arabs across the region have firmly rejected the extremist argument that violence and death are the only way to reclaim dignity and achieve justice,” Clinton said.
Four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, were killed in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya on Sept. 11, 2012.
“In Tripoli, the country’s transitional leaders condemned the attack. They fired the top security officials responsible for Benghazi. Then the government issued an ultimatum to militias across the country: disarm and disband in 48 hours or face the consequences. As many as 10 major armed groups complied,” Clinton said.
“Now militias and extremists remain a significant problem in Libya, but there is an effort to address it that has now taken hold throughout the country,” she added.
“As Libya grapples with the challenges of forming a government, the international community needs to support its efforts to bring these militias to heel and provide security for all of its citizens,” Clinton said....
Best answer I have found so far:
sheik yer'mami | October 15, 2012 10:37 AM | Reply
What planet is she on?
Planet Abedin.
The silly old tard has been living on planet Huma for a long time.
..
Hillary has of late been going pony-tail, as the mysterious Huma often does, I have noticed.
Well, we have been told, and here too, that foreign policy is one of Obama's strong points, and a reason to vote for Him.
ReplyDeleteNow we have been told by Hillary that Obama and Biden are not involved in security decisions.
I am beginning to think Huma Abedin is the one really running the whole show.
Just a suspicion in a naturally suspicious mind, perhaps.
Huma can really look hot, sometimes, and that is for sure. Hot, mysterious, secretive, foreign, provocatively pony-tailed....the mind wanders as usual.
DeleteHillary lonely, maritally rejected, always on the road, aging, private plane....naw....such thoughts rake the gutter.....Huma lonely, maritally rejected, always on the road, conspiratorial, aspirational...quit!!
DeleteHillary in 'Huma-handle' -
Deletehttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2905297/posts
Is Hillary Huma-handled?
Quit!
Before I get kicked out by the management -
Deletehttp://www.politico.com/gallery/2012/07/huma-abedin/000286-003723.html
#4
.
ReplyDeleteThe formulation is simple and applies the same to most walks of life, sports, business, politics. The buck stops at the top.
Hillary is right to accept responsibility for the Charlene Lamb or anyone else working for her. On the other hand, she was hired by Obama and the ultimate responsibility rests with him.
Simple.
.
Hillary lonely, maritally rejected, always on the road, aging, private plane....naw....such thoughts rake the gutter.....Huma lonely, maritally rejected, always on the road, conspiratorial, aspirational...quit!!
ReplyDeleteBill said Hill got more pussy than he did. That's a lot of pussy.
Great White Chief Plenty Pussy
Delete:)
Electric Car Battery Maker A123 Systems Files Bankruptcy
ReplyDeleteBy Dawn McCarty and Craig Trudell - Oct 16, 2012 9:50 AM ET
A123 Systems Inc. (AONE), a maker of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for electric cars, filed for bankruptcy after failing to make a debt payment that was due yesterday.
The company listed assets of $459.8 million and debt of $376 million as of Aug. 31 in Chapter 11 documents filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.
Enlarge image Electric Car Battery Maker A123 Systems Files for Bankruptcy
A123 Systems Inc. fell as much as 16 cents, or 70 percent, to 7 cents a share in over-the-counter trading as of 9:43 a.m. Photographer: Jeffrey Sauger/Bloomberg
A123 didn’t expect to be on time with an interest payment due yesterday on $143.8 million of notes expiring in 2016, or to make a payment due yesterday on $2.76 million in outstanding 6 percent notes, the Waltham, Massachusetts-based company said yesterday in a regulatory filing.
“The company may not have sufficient cash to fund operations and may need to seek the protections provided under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code,” A123 said.
The bankruptcy filing may fuel further political debate over government financing of alternative-energy and transportation businesses. Federal grants and loans to companies including A123, Fisker Automotive Inc. and Tesla Motors Inc. have drawn scrutiny from congressional Republicans following the September 2011 bankruptcy filing of solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC two years after it received a $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Energy Department.
Shares Fall
A123 fell as much as 16 cents, or 70 percent, to 7 cents a share in over-the-counter trading as of 9:43 a.m.
A123, which received a $249.1 million federal grant in 2009 to build a U.S. factory, needed a financial lifeline after struggling with costs from a recall of batteries supplied to Fisker, the plug-in hybrid luxury carmaker. A123 announced in August that it was working on a deal with Wanxiang Group Corp., China’s largest auto-parts maker, for financing in exchange for a majority ownership stake.
Wanxiang plans to invest as much as $465 million in A123, giving the Hangzhou, China-based company a stake of as much as 80 percent, A123 said in an Aug. 16 statement. In yesterday’s filing, A123 said it was considering strategic alternatives including “one or more potential transactions” to address its liquidity problems. There is “no assurance” that A123 will be able to find a way to continue to operate its business as a going concern, the company said.
Obama’s Call
President Barack Obama called A123 Chief Executive Officer David Vieau and then-Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm during a September 2010 event celebrating the opening of the plant in Livonia, Michigan, that the company received the U.S. grant to help build.
“This is about the birth of an entire new industry in America -- an industry that’s going to be central to the next generation of cars,” Obama said in the phone call, according to a transcript provided by the White House. “When folks lift up their hoods on the cars of the future, I want them to see engines and batteries that are stamped: Made in America.”
Obamabatteries discharged
IN PLAY: Romney draws to within 4 in PA...
ReplyDeletePoll: Romney Near Landslide In Rural Swing Counties...
Damn those bolt action Bible thumping hay baling backwoods bastards, eh, Ruf!
Exactly as our host predicted:
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON (AP) - The White House, under political pressure to respond forcefully to the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, is readying strike forces and drones but first has to find a target.
:)
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20121016/DA1UGST00.html
This is what I call a dynamic, forward looking foreign policy. We should all vote for Obama based on his foreign policy expertise alone.
DeleteAbout 200 schools have canceled an anti-bullying program after conservative evangelicals warned that it secretly promotes the "homosexual agenda." The Southern Poverty Law Center says it designed Mix It Up Lunch Day to encourage kids to sit beside someone different—to help break up cliques and ease bullying, New York Times reports. But the American Family Association disagreed, saying parents should keep children home instead.
ReplyDelete------
SoS Clinton is pulling a Janet Reno.
-----
Vikram Pandit?
Critics later charged that Pandit was too timid, perhaps even too academic, to run a big consumer bank.
"He was not beloved by Wall Street....'' McCormick said.
Also this:
The Wall Street Journal said the board was frustrated with the performance of the institutional clients unit, among other issues.
------
Bruce Campbell, actor from Sam Raimi's Evil Dead movies and currently playing Sam Axe on the TV Burn Notice series, says in one of the opening intro's to Burn Notice, "you know spies, a bunch of bitchy little girls."
Bully a weak kid for Christ.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder they love Romney.
I hate fucking religion.
DeleteFight Homosexuality Through Bullying
DeleteDon't Raise a Homo, Teach Your Kid to Bully!
ReplyDeleteManly Manliness Through Bullying!
DeleteBully; It's the Lord's Way.
Bully the Weak; Vote Romney
DeleteBetter Men Through Bullying
DeleteAnd, That, Bubba, is your "Rural" Voter in a nutshell.
ReplyDeleteNutshell :) (No pun intended - but appreciated.) :)
Bully a Kid for Christ
DeleteMy God, just think about it; these people are not only allowed to breed, they're allowed to Vote!
These are the people that Deuce says would have gotten rid of slavery on their own.
DeleteGive it up, Rufus.
ReplyDeleteThat kind of stuff no more represents religion than you do thought.
The way you ramble on about those higher things of which you insist on knowing nothing is an embarrassment.
Bullshit, I was born and raised among these shitheads. Don't tell me I don't know them. I know them very well.
DeleteI agree you know them, and have never said you didn't. I think you are a lot like them. Studiously ignorant, and so far damned well determined to remain that way.
DeleteYou are nearly what the Catholics call invincibly ignorant.
If I had the time, I'd waste it on you again today, by quoting some pages from d'Souza on the process through which slavery was ended in Europe and elsewhere. You are right. Those kind of people you point to didn't get the job done. Rather, the general Judeo/Chrisitan influence finally did, filtering from above down. But I'm too busy, and will try another day. When the Judeo/Christian finish wore off the Germans they were back to the old ways, as the German Jewish poet Heine predicted. Regress is always possible in our magpie world,
Got to run.
The only thing that ended slavery in the United States was an extremely homely President, and the industrial might of the North.
DeleteNo,we did a wonderful post on that:
DeleteBottom line was every other country in the Americas ended slavery by the 1870’s without a civil war. Lincoln was as you say homely and insecure with woman and often shared his bed with other men. He was a natural bigot and racist by any measure of definition. He got 600,00 Americans killed for nothing that could not have been solved by a better man.
The "Explainer-in-Chief" 'splains
ReplyDeleteRomney Tax Policy
Huffington Post headline from earlier this morning: Don't Blow It.
ReplyDeleteHard concept to grasp, given the intractable and feisty half life of Republican ignorance. One might expect some internal self-correction being implemented motivated by an iron determination to "take back" the presidency and the country, but the almost reliable uniformity of these spontaneous outbursts of sanctimonious indignation from "dick sticks" (Oldboy movie) is highly suggestive of an internal value commitment that the Republican Party cannot impose by fiat on an increasingly diverse American demographic.
Your old Trish poster was correct: the Republicans are not ready. VDH can write his little essays until he's blue in the face. The Republicans won't be center-stage material for at least ten, more like twenty, years.
I hope you're right, Doris; but I'm getting nervous. The "trend" in this election is, slowly, but inexorably, in the wrong direction.
DeleteThe O'man is going to have to "find some magic" pretty damned skosche.
I hope you're wrong Rufus but I have great respect for your "nose."
DeleteOn the other thing, it appears that "some" Northerners have no clue what "some" Southerners are like. I see that abrupt OMG! 'sit back and take note' response from many many quarters. Yep. They're still there. And McCaskill may lose to one of the poster boys for "backwardation."
David Stockman, y'all recall Reagan's budget director, is getting into the ring by attacking Romney's "job creator" claim. (Daily Beast article.)
DeleteAre we voting for a man? a myth? or a misty-eyed dream under assault from what? A "long-legged mack daddy" or a small incestuous group of money-changers who have nothing but contempt for the American Middle Class while spending their off-hours hiding in loathsome disguise behind a mask of Christian superiority. Not to worry: we will bankrupt you in this life, and "fix" your feminine little boys, but God will take care of you in the next life. Heaven, the place where straight white males go to die.
I'll take my chances with the "long legged mack daddy."
Here's a big problem, "as I see it," Doris.
DeleteNO ONE from the administration has even mentioned, much less shouted from the rooftops, a very important, AND ENCOURAGING, piece of Economic News. When your opponent is beating you up on the "deficit," fairly or unfairly, and is widely seen as potentially being better on said topic,
That Budget Surplus in September was Huge, Super-Duper, Good News. That could really be used by the President to his advantage, Big Time.
Like I said, so far, not a peep.
That's discouraging.
And, puzzling.
I don' get it.
It's like, half of this debate is being carried out in a language these people don't speak.
DeleteIf Obama would just say, "under Romney's tax plan MY Taxes will go Down by $250,000.00 a year - And guess Who is going to pay for it?"
It might break through the confusion.
I think this race is so close, right now, that if the election were today, Romney might win the popular vote, while narrowly losing the electoral vote.
Deletehttp://www.redstate.com/files/2012/10/Wind_Turbines2.jpg
ReplyDeleteNeat picture of a burning wind turbine.
Another Obama Cargo Cult Company fails -
http://www.redstate.com/2012/10/16/cargo-cult-company-fails/
Yesterday the Danish wind turbine manufacturer, Vestas, announced it had laid off 800 US workers and as many as 1600 might be laid off by the end of the year.
Danish wind turbine maker Vestas said the impending expiry of a U.S. tax credit had exacerbated a fall in orders for next year, forcing it to make more than 800 job cuts in the United States and Canada so far this year.
With the Production Tax Credit (PTC) on renewable energy set to expire at the end of the year, Vestas Wind Systems A/S had previously said it could be forced to lay off a total of 1,600 employees in North America if the scheme is not renewed.
Vestas, which is battling the effects of government austerity measures in various countries, said the 800 staff cuts so far this year represented 20 percent of its North American workforce.
This is an emerging trend in companies whose business model is based on rent-seeking under Obama’s “green energy” boondoggle, not producing a product anyone really wants.
So far this year, companies in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, North Dakota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have all cancelled projects or laid off workers. In the last month alone, more than 1,334 manufacturing workers have lost their jobs. That tally comes from individual announcements made by companies since late August.
The world’s largest wind manufacturer, Vestas Wind, says it may lay off 1,600 American workersin the next year if the production tax credit is not extended. That temporary credit offers owners of wind farms 2.2 cents for every kilowatt-hour of wind generated. The American Wind Energy Association says the credit has helped raise $20 billion in private investment over the last five years, supporting 75,000 jobs.
However, according to analysis from a prominent consulting firm, the wind industry could shed up to 37,000 jobs if the wind tax credit is not extended past 2012.....
You do know that there is a Production Tax Credit for new Nuclear Power, right? right? oh, . . . . . you "didn't" know that?
Deletejust another ignorant fuck I suppose
But wind energy isn’t unique in the stupendously bad “investments” (that’s what venture Marxists call squandering you tax money). The “investments” made by this regime are nothing short of disastrous. From the National Center for Policy Analysis’s Environment Blog:
ReplyDeleteBankrupt Green Energy Companies that received substantial federal and/or state subsidies:
Beacon Power Corp: Received $43 million in federal loan guaranteed in 2009 and also received $29 million in PA grants – Bankrupt in October 2011
Ener1 (parent company of EnerDel): Received $118.5 million in federal loan guarantees — Bankrupt in January 2012 – has since exited bankruptcy
Evergreen Solar: Received $58 million in MA loan guarantees (an undisclosed portion sourced from federal ARRA block grant) — Bankrupt in August 2011 with $485.6 million in debt
Solyndra: Received $535 million in federal loan guarantees in 2009 and $25.1 million in CA tax credit — Bankrupt in August 2011
SpectraWatt: Received $500,000 in federal loan guarantees in 2009 — Bankrupt in August 2011
Babcock and Brown: Received $178 million in federal grants in December 2009 (4 months after it went bust) – Bankrupt in early 2009
Mountain Plaza Inc.: Received $424,000 in federal grants through TN Department of Transportation in 2009 — Bankrupt in 2003 and again in June 2010
Solar Trust of America (parent company: Solar Millennium): Received $2.1 billion loan guarantee in April 2011 – Bankrupt in April 2012
Other Subsidized Green Energy Companies in decline:
A123: Received $300 million in federal grants and $135 million in MI grants —Declining orders and have forced multiple layoffs
Amonix, Inc.: Received $5.9 million in federal tax credits in 2009 through ARRA —Laid off 2/3 of work force
First Solar: Received $3 billion in federal loan guarantees — Biggest S&P loser in 2011, CEO fired
Fisker Automotive: $529 million in federal loan guarantees — Multiple 2012 sales prediction downgrades for first car release, delivery and cash flow troubles;Assembling cars in Finland
Johnson Controls: Received $299 million in federal grants in 2009 — Low demand caused cancellation of a new factory, operating at half capacity
Nevada Geothermal: Received $98.5 million in federal loan guarantees in 2009 —Defaulting on long-term debt obligations, 85% drop in stock value
Sun Power: Received $1.2 billion in federal loan guarantees — Debt exceeds assets; French oil company took over last fall
Abound Solar: Received $400 million in federal loans in 2012 — ½ work force laid off
BrightSource Energy: $1.6 billion federal loan approved in April 2012 – loan obtained through political connections with the administration; absent the loan, Brightsource’s solar power purchase would have fallen through.
We can even update this list today as one of the companies listed as being “in decline” on the above list, A123, a company that makes lithium batteries for the cars no one buys, declared bankruptcy:
ReplyDeleteA123 Systems Inc. (AONE), the electric car battery maker that received a $249 million federal grant, filed for bankruptcy protection after failing to make a debt payment that was due yesterday.
The filing may fuel further political debate over government financing of alternative-energy and transportation businesses. Federal grants and loans to companies including A123, Fisker Automotive Inc. and Tesla Motors Inc. have drawn scrutiny from congressional Republicans following the September 2011 bankruptcy filing of solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC two years after it received a $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Energy Department.
…
President Barack Obama called A123 Chief Executive Officer David Vieau and then-Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm during a September 2010 event celebrating the opening of the plant in Livonia, Michigan, that the company received the U.S. grant to help build.
“This is about the birth of an entire new industry in America — an industry that’s going to be central to the next generation of cars,” Obama said in the phone call, according to a transcript provided by the White House. “When folks lift up their hoods on the cars of the future, I want them to see engines and batteries that are stamped: Made in America.”
While the regime has been throwing away our national treasure on these bogus and ephemeral efforts it has set about destroying real jobs in mining, energy, and petrochemicals.
This is just another step in the Obama regimes showing its affinity for cargo cult economics over real economic growth (here | here | here | here | here). The jobs that are being lost via these layoffs are nothing more or less than a modern day Works Progress Administration that created bogus jobs, sapping productivity and dragging out the Great Depression, in the mistaken belief that spending tax dollars on things that no one wants to buy creates a middle class.
This will be a huge test for the Congress if Mitt Romney is elected. Will they extend this boondoggle tax credit or will it stop the distortion of market forces and the drain on the public treasury by pulling the plug.
Mitt debates - I forgot how good this guy really was
ReplyDeleteWhat was that shit about the deficit? 1.1? I thought it was like 16.
DeleteI saw my first Prius with an Obama sticker. Last election you saw them at battalion levels.
ReplyDeleteI will agree with Doris and Rufus on one thing. The Republican assault on new green technologies is simplistic and stupid.
ReplyDeleteAll new technologies produce more failed companies than successful ones. Pick your innovation and name those that never made the cut.
My old company, Raytheon, was once famous for what technology?
Missile guidance systems?
Delete1.4% of the "green" companies the government has backed went bk.
The fact is, 14% of the "green money" was set aside for "high risk" ventures.
We now get 6% (vs. 3% just a couple of years ago) of our electricity from Wind/Solar/Geothermal.
And, 10% of that stuff in your tank is ethanol.
Nope.
ReplyDeleteI cheated with wiki.
DeleteChina, once a catch basin for the world's money, is now watching cash stream out.
ReplyDelete...
China hasn't reported on capital inflows and outflows since last year, but it is possible to gauge more recent flows using trade data...
Raytheon made billions on missiles, radar and guidance systems. A few of my favorite things, but that is not what they were famous for.
ReplyDeleteKeep cheating, no one has said the magic word.
ReplyDeleterefrigeration
DeleteNope.
DeleteDo you give?
Deletewomen's stockings
DeleteMr Romney spent the last hours before the debate with his family, including his wife Ann and their five grown-up boys. His aides similarly projected confidence that he would score well tonight as he did in Denver.
ReplyDelete"His objective is to continue the conversation with voters about what the right economic policies are for the country," top economic advisor Glen Hubbard said. "He did that really well last time and I'd be stunned if he doesn't do it well tonight."
The Republican was also expected to seize on news that A123 Systems, a battery company that had received green subsidies from the Obama administration, was declaring bankruptcy, a second big company supported by tax-papers funds to do so.
Remind me to tell you the story on how I became “persona no grata’ in Greece and ended up in Cambridge England instead of Cyprus.
ReplyDeleteIt was the fault of my bridge partner.
Earlier this year, the country’s largest mortgage servicers agreed to reform their practices and pony up $25 billion in a multi-state settlement to atone for faulty foreclosures. A new report out Tuesday from the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says the companies that manage student loans have many similar problems that haunted mortgage servicers.
ReplyDeleteThe CFPB’s private student loan ombudsman, Rohit Chopra, wrote the report based on nearly 3,000 borrower complaints and says he found an “uncanny” parallel to mortgages. Ninety-five percent of the complaints collected by the CFPB focused on problems triggered when students interact with servicers, which collect monthly payments on behalf of investors who own the loan.
Give me another Hendricks and tonic and I will tell you about my final night at the Congo Palace in Athens.
ReplyDeleteelectronics
DeleteOkay, but first, the Raytheon thing.
DeleteAnd, the answer is . . . . . . ?
Deletevacuum tubes
DeletePresidential Election Scorecard
ReplyDeleteFinal Grades:
Gary Johnson - B
Barack Obama - C
Mitt Romney - F
Jill Stein - Incomplete
Election Scorecard
On this day in 1969, the NY Mets celebrated their first World Series in franchise history, defeating the Baltimore Orioles in five games.
ReplyDeleteTelevisions!
ReplyDeleteI just heard on TV that the Chinese Government built the new Building for the business that Bain is moving from Freeport, Il to Sinoland.
ReplyDeleteNow, at this point, I blame the Obama Administration as much, or more, than I blame Romney, and Bain. They (Bain) should have been informed, immediately, that, inasmuch as China is subsidizing that business, they will now be Taxed to the Max on their imports.
This is Not a "free trade" issue. This is a "self-preservation" issue.
Later.
B-HO really practiced up on his swagger walk. Other than that he's lying like hell.
ReplyDeleteObama: reelect me b/c Bill Clinton was a good president.
ReplyDeleteObama is squeaking like Big Bird on laughing gas.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteAndrew Ross Sorkin has a remarkable piece of hogwash masquerading as a story today. His new piece, “Nowadays, Wall Street Saviors May Wish They Weren’t,” blatantly rewrites crisis history claiming that buyers of failed firms were “pressured” by the government do transactions during the crisis and the Big Bad Government got the better of them.
His article starts with PR from Jamie Dimon on the JP Morgan acquisition of Bear Stearns. Now that JP Morgan is facing a milquetoast suit from the New York attorney general over some particularly heinous conduct by Bear (we’ve argued this suit is sure to be settled for very little down the road), Jamie is shamelessly using the bit of negative media coverage to whine that next time, maybe [you won’t have Dick Nixon to kick around] he won’t be there to rescue failed banks.
More revelations of abuse from the phat felines of Wall St.
Half of Romney's cabinet as Governor were women.
ReplyDeleteI am waiting, waiting for the Libya question.....
ReplyDeleteObama says we've gone through a tough four years, a debate winner.
ReplyDeleteStill waiting for the Hillary/Libya question....
Even Candy Crowley can't shut O up.
ReplyDeleteObama's done everything he can about immigration. heh
ReplyDeleteWaiting for a question about Fast and Furious, and Hillary/Libya....
Ah, Libya
ReplyDeleteO: "You don't turn national security into a political issue."
But, I killed Bin Laden
Candy carries O's water at the last. Someone has to.
ReplyDeleteHiring teachers refutes Fast and Furious.
ReplyDeleteObama believes in self reliance.
ReplyDeleteConclusion? - This sort of shit ought to be outlawed.
Had to take a piss, O lied about his grandfather?
ReplyDeleteSince his father (if he was his father) died a dead drunk, I guess you make something up about your grandfather.
It has been pointed out to me that O's grandfather on his mother's side did serve in WWII.
DeleteWas confused by my wife's question and statement.
One time O said his father had served in WWII, which may have been an honest mistake or misstatement by O.
Mr. Romney rejected the president's characterization of his tax proposal, reassuring the audience repeatedly that he wouldn't raise taxes on middle-income taxpayers but rather erase deductions for the wealthy.
ReplyDelete"I'm not looking to cut taxes for wealthy people," Mr. Romney said. "I'm looking to cut taxes for middle-income people."
The debate was held as voting by absentee ballot or in person is under way in more than 40 states, including many of the battlegrounds that will decide the race on Nov. 6.
In the @CBSNews Instant Poll, 65% say Romney won on the issue of the economy. 34% say Obama won on the economy.
ReplyDeleteThen, since the election is mostly about the economy, I guess Romney won the debate, though O did better than last time.
Romney will be wearing sunglasses for a couple of days. I hope he has a good "corner-man," cause he got cut to shreds. Fact-checked by the fat broad in midstream. With 47 thumps to the head and shoulders right at the end.
ReplyDeleteThe fat pinko broad had it wrong, and was coming to O's defense.
DeleteBuck
:)
How do you explain that by 2 to 1 folks are saying Romney won on the economy?
Mean+Gene
Frank Luntz focus group just declared Romney the hands-down winner on Fox.
Put that in your Budweiser can and drink it.
TommyFrisco
DeleteObama bragged about oil imports being lower than in the last 20 years and he bragged about illegal immigrants coming into our country at a slower pace than in the last 20 years.
Romney failed to give Obama due credit for both of those statistics. A stagnant economy lowers the demand for crude oil and most illegals don't want to come here when there are no jobs available.
Romney missed this opportunity. There is lower unemployment in Mexico. This is something of an O success story, solving the immigrant problem by ruining our economy.
A Frank Luntz focus group? :) Really.
DeleteNope, the fat broad had it right. Go watch the video.
DeleteBig ass paleface broad bites fork tongue -
DeleteCamEdwards @CamEdwards
RT @BuzzFeedAndrew: CNN's Candy Crowley: Romney was right on Libya. - http://youtu.be/athcyCTnTTs | Un-bleeping-real.
Chief Plenty Coups
3 polls so far, one in Colorado was a +3 Republican mix.
ReplyDeleteObama won all 3 polls, including the +3 pub mix one, Hands Down.
http://freebeacon.com/candy-crowley-he-was-right/
ReplyDeleteObama did better than last time, but 2/3 of the people think he lost on the economy. Again, the election is mostly about the economy.
ReplyDeleteI guess O did well in that he didn't look again like a gibbering ghost.
Obama did not make the case for his contract to be renewed.
ReplyDeleteRomney did nothing to show that he was not presidential.
On debating skills it was close.
The moderator clearly was trying to help Obama. That hurts Obama.
No significant minds have been changed yet, but Obama’s claim that he called Benghazi a terrorist attack from the rose garden is demonstrably not true.
Oh yes he did; I watched the video.
Delete"No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for," Obama said toward the end of his speech that day.
Where is Benghazi in that?
DeleteThey claimed for two weeks the video did it.
I put a post up showing what Obama said in the Rose Garden and what he said tonight. Obama was talking about 9/11 2001 and referred to it as a “terrible attack.”
DeleteAfter the war – brought to an end by the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995 – Mladic and Karadzic went on the run. Karadzic was sensationally arrested on a bus in Belgrade in 2008.
ReplyDelete...
After being brought to The Hague for trial in 2009, Karadzic initially refused to co-operate with the court, claiming he had not had enough time to prepare his defence. The presiding judge in the trial, O-Gon Kwon of South Korea, has given Karadzic 300 hours in which to defend himself, and he has declared his intention to call 300 witnesses.
"Everybody who knows me knows I am not an autocrat, I am not aggressive," he told the court yesterday. "On the contrary I am a mild man, a tolerant man with great capacity to understand others."
Source: voterlookup.elections.state.ny.us
ReplyDeleteAssault Weapons Question Came From Registered Dem
President Trillion-Tax-Hike
Obama’s Tax Hikes Won’t ‘Pay Down the Debt’
AP Images
Obama Admin Contradicts Itself Again on Libya Attack
Candy Crowley: He Was Right
Moderator: Romney was 'right in the main' on Benghazi, but 'picked the wrong word'
BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
October 16, 2012 11:41 pm
After the debate, debate moderator Candy Crowley said Republican nominee Mitt Romney was “right in the main” but “picked the wrong word” on the Obama administration’s immediate response to the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead.
Crowley interrupted Romney during the debate, insisting that President Obama had in fact called the attack an “act of terror.”
ROMNEY: I want to make sure we get that for the record because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror.
OBAMA: Get the transcript.
CROWLEY: It — it — it — he did in fact, sir. So let me — let me call it an act of terror…
OBAMA: Can you say that a little louder, Candy?
CROWLEY: He — he did call it an act of terror. It did as well take — it did as well take two weeks or so for the whole idea there being a riot out there about this tape to come out. You are correct about that.
In a statement given in the Rose Garden on Sept. 12, Obama emphasized an anti-Islam video, before saying that “no acts of terror would shake the resolve of this great nation.”
The administration’s narrative on the attack over the next two weeks was muddled.
On Sept. 16, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice attributed the attack on the U.S. Consulate to violent protests stemming from a “heinous and offensive” video.
On Sept. 25, the president himself declined to call the attack an act of terrorism during an interview with “The View,” saying that an investigation was still ongoing.
On Sept. 25, the president himself declined to call the attack an act of terrorism during an interview with “The View,” saying that an investigation was still ongoing.
DeleteGuy Benson @guypbenson
ReplyDeleteBig. MT@kesgardner: CNN: did Obama offer clear plan for solving the nation's problems? 38% said yes. But 61% said no. Who won this debate?
Romney
nite
You can go to the next post and listen to how Obama described the attack in his Rose Garden speech and how he described it tonight.
ReplyDelete