Daily Archives: October 21, 2011

10/21/11

Peter Pan’s Green Cake was Poisoned

By: T F Stern
T F Stern’s Rantings

I remember watching the movie Peter Pan as a young boy and feeling physically ill at the thought of Peter eating the poisoned green cake which had been placed where the Lost Boys would find it. The shape of the green cake has changed over the years; now it’s disguised as green energy. The poison introduced in America has been carefully manipulated; the hoax of man made global warming and the necessary redistribution of wealth to save our planet through socialism.

You might recall a poisonous statement made by Robert McChesney, influential adviser to the Obama administration:

“There is no real answer but to remove brick by brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles”

Watching tax dollars being thrown away is a bit disconcerting. Is it due to incompetence of the Obama administration or is such wasteful spending attached to something more sinister and corrupt?

Not too long ago we learned of the Obama administration full court press to throw money at Solyndra, an unstable green energy company. The Bush administration had turned down the loan previously. It turns out Solyndra wasn’t the only scandalous loan provided under Obama, this morning Fox News reported about over half a Billion dollar loan to an electric car manufacturing company – in Finland.

“The Department of Energy is standing by a $529 million loan guarantee to an electric car company that is outsourcing production to Finland.”

{…}

“The ABC News report noted the political connections enjoyed by Fisker and another company, Tesla Motors, which together received about $1 billion in loans. Fisker reportedly is backed by a firm that counts ex-Vice President Al Gore among its partners. The article said just 40 of Fisker’s Karma cars have been produced so far, and that Tesla is consistently losing money.”

Fancy that, Al Gore profiting from tax payers in a green energy deal. I read an article in the New York Times by Joe Nocera which tried to justify wasteful spending of taxpayer money for green projects. The New York Times was once regarded as something other than a mouthpiece for the progressive agenda, but most recently they seem to be nothing more than useful idiots or worse.

“…if we could just stop playing gotcha for a second, we might realize that federal loan programs — especially loans for innovative energy technologies — virtually require the government to take risks the private sector won’t take.”

Why would American taxpayers risk hard earned tax money on questionable investments? Aren’t we depending on those in charge of these funds to carefully discharge their duties? I keep forgetting the reality of public office; tax payers and their money are endless in the eyes of government bureaucrats and politicians: Fannie Mae, Tarp, Cash for Clunkers and the list goes on and on.
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An article by Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. which appeared in the Wall Street Journal countered the idea that government money wasted on Solyndra was simply an investment in developing energy technology which the private sector would not venture into.

“This illustrates what might be called the macro Solyndra policy failure. A poor commercial risk is a poor commercial risk, whether private or government investors take it.”

{…}

“But, of course, the calculation behind Solyndra was political, not financial. Factories were wanted. Factories suggest jobs. Factories create photo-ops. Oh well. Solar subsidies have been part of the federal panoply since Carter, and even Reagan tried only to trim them, not eliminate them. The second Bush amped them up bigtime as a way to suggest that his only approach to problems in the Middle East wasn’t to send in the troops.

The Obama contribution hardly amounts to more than a banal urge to take whatever government does and do more of it, as if any chance to expand the role of bureaucrats is too good to miss. In one way, however, his Solyndra venture does fit nicely into today’s megatrend, which, from here to Athens, consists of embarrassingly poor financial management.”

There you have it, the Obama administration lined their own pockets and the pockets of political allies through the use of bogus and manipulated data which they have proclaimed to be the result of man made global warming. The promise of green energy, regardless of its practicality, has been used to squander billions of dollars, not so much on innovation and new technology, but on long shot ventures which reasoned investors won’t touch. The taxpayers are being played for suckers while at the same time our free market system is being dismantled brick by brick.

Up until now I’d heard detractors of Obama compare him to many unsavory characters, but until today it never occurred to me how similar he and his administration are to Captain Hook and the pirates of Never Never Land. The magic of America, the free market system, has taken in the poison. Isn’t it time for those who still believe in America to begin clapping in order to save her?

This article has been cross-posted to The Moral Liberal, a publication whose banner reads, “Defending The Judeo-Christian Ethic, Limited Government & The American Constitution.”

10/21/11

FORGET TERRORISM, BLOOMBERG SHIFTS FOCUS TO A NEW ENEMY… CUPCAKES

By: Chad Kent
Chad Kent Speaks

As we have seen, the legislator thinks he is the potter and mankind is the clay. Unfortunately, when this idea prevails, everyone wants to be the potter and no one wants to be the clay.

Frederic Bastiat, The Law

With terrorists descending on NY from all over the world, Bloomberg is tirelessly defending us from… cupcakes. Fantastic!

Last month, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave a speech at the U.N. where he made some bizarre comments about the role of government in society. Some of his statements seemed more like a justification for why he is forcing his values on the rest of society rather than a description of a coherent political philosophy.

Let’s take a look at the money quote from Bloomberg’s speech – where he claims that the highest duty of government is to force people to eat healthy food. After that, I’ll follow with two questions he needs to answer before this nonsense can have any kind of logical credibility:

“There are powers only governments can exercise, policies only governments can mandate and enforce and results only governments can achieve. To halt the worldwide epidemic of non-communicable diseases, governments at all levels must make healthy solutions the default social option. That is ultimately government’s highest duty.”

1. If there are powers only a government can exercise, then where did they get these supernatural powers?

Any just government derives it’s power from the people. So if the people don’t have the power to do something, they obviously can’t grant that authority to the government. Power is just like anything else – you can’t give away something you don’t have.

Look at it this way. If there were five people living in a place where there was no government, what right would four of those people have to get together and force the other person to do something against his will? None – that would violate his right to liberty.

Well what if that same group of four people decided to call themselves a government and “granted” themselves the power to force the other person to do something against his will. Would that make it right? Of course not.

So if the people can’t grant the power to the government, where does it come from? By what authority can Mayor Bloomberg and the group of people who created the government in New York City force you to eat what they tell you to?

2. Why is it appropriate for Bloomberg – or anyone in government – to force his idea of a good life on everyone else?

Michael Bloomberg feels that it’s worth the sacrifice for him to give up certain foods in order to live a long, healthy life. Good for him.

What if it isn’t for me?

What if my idea of a good life is gorging myself on cupcakes every night and dying at 40? Why should Bloomberg be able to deny me my happiness?

What I choose to eat affects no one but me and doesn’t violate the rights of anyone else. So what is the goal of having the government protect me from my own decisions?

Contrary to what Michael Bloomberg might like to believe, the “highest duty” of government isn’t to tell me what to eat. The highest duty of government is to protect our rights. Among those rights is the Right to Liberty – meaning that I can live my life however I choose as long as I don’t violate the rights of anyone else. When the government comes in and tells me that I have to eat healthy food, that is a clear violation of my Right to Liberty.

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If Bloomberg wants to tell us about all of the great things the power of a big government can do, he needs to start by explaining exactly where that power comes from.

10/21/11

Obamas Wall Street Funders: Obamas Money From Banks, Hedge Funds, Financial Services

By: Maggie Thornton
Maggie’s Notebook

As the unwashed masses are standing in their Nike’s, “occupying” the streets of New York to bring down Wall Street and re-elect Barack Obama, it is their guy, Obama, getting all the big time money from Wall Street banders, hedge funds and financial services. In fact, Obama raised more than the entire Republican field together. This included reaping the giant’s share of donors at Bain Capital, the private equity firm Mitt Romney co-founded. Despite Obama’s efforts to neuter Wall Street, he has continued to raise “far” more money in 2011 from those sectors than Romney, or any other GOP presidential campaign. One thing to remember: while Obama raised more from Wall than the entire Republican field in 2008, that flipped in the 2010 elections.

Washington Post:

Obama has raised a total of $15.6 million from employees in the industry, according to the Post analysis. Nearly $12 million of that went to the DNC, the analysis shows.

Romney has raised less than half that much from the industry, while Texas. Rick Perry brought in about $2 million. No other Republican candidate has raised more than $402,000 from the finance sector, which also includes insurance and real estate interests…

Take the DNC money out of Obama’s bank account and it doesn’t look great for him. He has raised $3.9 Million from the ‘Wall Street’ sector, but Romney has raised $7.5 Million. Some bankers don’t feel so warm and fuzzy about their guy, Obama, as they did in 2008.

Another look from Politico:

Obama and other Democrats are still cashing in on Wall Street. Last month, Obama’s campaign held a fundraising dinner hosted by Warren Buffett at Manhattan’s Four Seasons restaurant, the Los Angeles Times reported. Obama has hauled in $3.9 million from the finance, insurance and real estate sector so far this year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. But he’s been outpaced by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has received $7.5 million from the sector.

Goldman Sachs employees – who contributed more than $1 million to Obama in the 2008 election cycle — are now spending more on Romney than Obama, according to CRP. Goldman Sachs employees, along with their spouses, have contributed $352,200 to Romney. That’s more than seven times the $49,125 they’ve given to Obama…

Overall, the commercial banking industry spent roughly the same amount in the 2008 election cycle to back congressional Republicans and Democrats, spending about $14.9 million and $14.2 million on the parties, respectively, according to the CRP. But that balance tipped heavily to the GOP’s favor in the 2010 cycle, and congressional Democrats are now trailing far behind Republicans so far in the 2012 cycle when it comes to Wall Street support.

Publicly, many Democrats insist that they’re not concerned about irking their Wall Street donors.

Right.

Congressman Steve Israel, a Jewish member of Congress and head of the DNCC, supported Occupy Wall Street with an email to supporters asking for 100,000 signatures to support the protesters. It didn’t bother Israel in the slightest that the streets are full of anti-Semitism. That email brought a barrage of calls from bankers to the DNCC:

Banking executives personally called the offices of DCCC Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) and DCCC Finance Chairman Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) last week demanding answers, three financial services lobbyists told POLITICO.

“They were livid,” said one Democratic lobbyist with banking clients.

The execs asked the lawmakers: “What are you doing? Do you even understand some of the things that they’ve called for?” said another lobbyist with financial services clients who is a former Democratic Senate aide.

Democrats’ friends on Wall Street have a message for them: you can’t have it both ways.

And some financial services lobbyists and industry insiders say the liberal line will make swing givers think twice before opening their checkbooks this year.

“Most Wall Street guys, they feel like they’re going to be burned in effigy,” said Anthony Scaramucci, managing partner of SkyBridge Capital, who gave to Obama in 2008 but is now fundraising for Mitt Romney. Some moderate donors, who have given to both parties, “fled from Obama in his support of the Wall Street protests,” he said…

Goldman Sachs employees – who contributed more than $1 million to Obama in the 2008 election cycle — are now spending more on Romney than Obama, according to CRP. Goldman Sachs employees, along with their spouses, have contributed $352,200 to Romney. That’s more than seven times the $49,125 they’ve given to Obama.

Despite Dodd-Frank, a lawless Department of Justice and massive class warfare rhetoric, Wall Street “fat-cats” still loves them some Obama. A pox on them all. Weasel Zippers has more.

10/21/11

The Council Has Spoken!! This Week’s Watchers Council Results

The Watcher’s Council

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast and the results are in for this week, carved eternally in the akashic records of cyberspace.

Many of this week’s Council entries focused on the OWS protests. This week’s winner, Joshuapundit for Egypt Moves Towards The Abyss, took at look at the current state of affairs in the place many of the OWS protesters look to as an inspiration for their current tactics and how those developments look to be playing out for Egypt, the region and ultimately for America. Here’s a slice:

The recent bloody clashes and unrest in Egypt is merely a foretaste of what could easily occur next month, when elections are supposed to be held.
The latest violence, between Egypt’s Christian Copts and the army, involved a protest over a whole series of church burnings and killings at the hands of Muslims and ended with the army driving armored vehicles at top speed into the crowd and crushing people to death. It left 26 dead and over 200 wounded.

The Copts, who comprise about 10% of Egypt’s 80 million population mostly supported the ouster of Mubarak. They’re one of the earliest groups who are likely destined to be very disappointed at the way the ‘Arab Spring’ turns out in Egypt.

One of my notorious Little Birdies on the ground who ought to know tells me that if elections were held today, there’s absolutely no doubt that the Muslim Brotherhood would win a majority in both the Majilis Al-Sha’ab ( “People’s Assembly”) and the Majilis Al-Shura, the lower and upper houses in what passes for Egypt’s parliament.They have proven far better organized than the group we’ll refer to as the Twitter Liberals and are in position to dominate the next Egyptian government provided elections are held as scheduled.

Mubarak’s National Democratic Party(NDP) controlled the last national assembly. While it no longer exists, its members are active among a few newly formed secular parties whose agenda is to band together to block the Muslim Brotherhood from establishing a religious state.

In response the Muslim Brotherhood upped the ante by giving the military leaders now ruling Egypt an ultimatum – that they expect former NDP members of Parliament to be banned from participating in the upcoming elections.

As in most Muslim countries, Egypt’s Army is one of the few parts of society that actually functions. It’s an entity unto itself that owns about one third of Egypt’s economy, and supports a number of wealthy businessmen with Army connections. At present, the Egyptian Army rules Egypt through the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

The big question for the Army is whether to continue to assume its normal role in Egypt as guardian of the status quo or to stand aside and allow the ascension of an Islamist government, which would entail the loss of a number of its current privileges.

That’s the choice the Egyptian Army is going to have to make fairly soon, and by all accounts there’s a deep division within the military on which way to go.

Even worse, whatever choice they actually make is going to lead to more outbreaks of violence and instability, the last thing Egypt needs right now.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Dana Loesch’s superb piece in Big Government, Journolist 2.0: Occupy Wall Street Emails Show MSM, Dylan Ratigan, Working With Protesters To Craft Message submitted by Bookworm Room. It examines in detail how Jornolist, the now not-so-clandestine organization of left wing journolists who supposedly report the news in a neutral fashion, collaborate to promote talking points and a narrative in ways that suit their agenda and that of the Obama Administration.

The last time this surfaced, we saw how the Journolistas plotted to destroy then GOP Vice Presidential nominee Governor Sarah Palin while burying stories like the Reverend Wright revelations that reflected badly on candidate Barack Obama. This time, they’re working together to craft a narrative sympathetic to the OWS protesters.

Here are this week’s full results. Only New Zeal was unable to vote this week, but was not affected by the mandatory 2/3 vote penalty:

Council Winners

Non-Council Winners

See you next week! And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter… ’cause we’re cool like that!