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Thứ Bảy, 3 tháng 9, 2011

After Solyndra

Taxpayers are now on the hook for a $535 million loan to bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra. A top Obama donor -- billionaire George Kaiser -- now claims he didn't use his political influence to secure the federal loan.

The foundation of Tulsa billionaire George Kaiser said it took a hit like all other investors in Solyndra, which this week shuttered its plant and laid off 1,100 workers. The California-based solar panel manufacturer won a $535 million government-backed loan to spur clean-energy innovation, but now taxpayers may be obligated to pay it back...

...In a Thursday statement, the George Kaiser Family Foundation said Kaiser, a major fundraising bundler for Obama, is not personally invested in Solyndra and “did not participate in any discussions with the U.S. Government regarding the loan.” ...[But] Kaiser has been a frequent White House visitor.

The recent failure of at least three major solar companies like Solyndra hasn't stopped the magnanimous bureaucrats at the Department of Energy from awarding $145M in "solar grants" (with your money, of course):

In a week when the solar energy sector has been under fire, MIT and two Massachusetts are among the beneficiaries of a U.S. Department of Energy solar technologies program that has awarded $145 million to 69 organizations in 24 states.

The DOE SunShot initiative is designed to help shape the next generation of solar energy technologies, according to a news release from the agency...

American taxpayers have been funding the solar power delusion since the era of Jimmy Carter.

It's about time we disbanded the Department of Energy's "green initiatives" program which has a perfect return-on-investment: zero for many billions of dollars.

What should have been today's headline in every newspaper in America

That is, if we had a real media in this country.

"It was the first time since 1945 that the government has reported a net monthly job change of zero."

After an exhausting nine days on Martha's Vineyard, followed by several campaign events, the President headed to Camp David yesterday for the long Labor Day weekend in order to golf, decompress and unwind.

Larwyn's Linx: Barry Obama -- Who is this guy?

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Cornucopia

Go Now Bag: Exurban League

Obama confronts Boehner: Exclusive photo : Laughing Conservative

Signs of Sanity in New England: Urban Infidel

Image: MOTUS

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Michele Bachmann for President

QOTD: "Given that AT&T would have more than 43 percent of the market, and combined with Verizon would have more than 80 percent of the U.S. market, there’s cause to be concerned the two could start colluding — without even needing to talk to one another.

Moreover, AT&T is a tech laggard. Name any innovation in wireless and AT&T will land about dead last in the order of rolling it out, except for maybe one — locking up the iPhone for a long exclusive.

Techies have already seemed to have forgotten that telecoms and the greater tech world are naturally enemies, and the carriers stifled innovation for as long as they could — until Apple blew a hole in their walled gardens." --Ryan Singel, "Why Feds Are Right to Block AT&T, T-Mobile Merger"

Thứ Sáu, 2 tháng 9, 2011

Libya Rebel Commander: "An Islamist? Moi?"

Dan from New York:

This should quiet all the bitter skeptics who said Obama’s Libyan adventure would wind up trading Qaddafi for something worse.

Libya Rebel Commander Plays Down Islamist Past

September 02, 2011 | Associated Press

TRIPOLI, Libya -- The rebels' Tripoli military commander, a former leader of an Islamic militant group that sent fighters to Iraq and Afghanistan, insisted Friday that the new Libya will shun extremism and won't become a breeding ground for terrorism.

The commander, Abdel Hakim Belhaj, said he was detained in 2004 in Malaysia and sent to a secret prison in Thailand where he was tortured by CIA agents. Then he was sent to Libya and jailed for seven years by Muammar Qaddafi's regime.

But Belhaj, 45, played down his Islamist past, seeking to allay concerns about his emergence as a prominent figure in the Western-backed Libyan opposition movement.

He insisted he holds no grudges against the West because of the shared goal of ousting Qaddafi... Belhaj was a leader in the now dissolved Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which was deemed a terror group by the U.S. But he said he refused to join Al Qaeda because he disagreed with its ideology of global jihad, or holy war, and wanted to focus on ridding Libya of Qaddafi.

He said he never agreed with Al Qaeda's ideology of global jihad, or holy war, but only wanted to focus on ridding Libya of Qaddafi... Qaddafi, in courting the West in recent years, has insisted Al Qaeda would gain influence in Libya unless he remained in power...

Belhaj dismissed those concerns... "We never have and never will support what they call terrorism," he said.

"Libya is a moderate Muslim country," he said. "We are a simple people with a simple cultural makeup and we have never had extremist ideas. And if there ever were any they were an exception."

Why, this is the "Arab Spring", so what could possibly go wrong?

Could the President be brought down by a single poll?

Larwyn points us to a James Taranto Best of the Web snippet which reads:

...an intriguing observation from reader Tim Magee: "Could the President be brought down by a single poll? How about Obama vs. Hillary Clinton among Democrats? I think she could win that poll, and I don't think Obama could recover, regardless of whether Mrs. Clinton ran."

Let's find out. Somebody please commission that poll.

Oh, my.

I shudder to think what that might do to the fragile ego of our Narcissist-in-Chief.

Gunrunner Tip: U.S. city officials smuggled guns to Mexican cartels... under the watchful eyes of federal agents

This story could give you chills.

I wrote a few days ago about the city officials in New Mexico's border town of Columbus indicted for smuggling firearms and tactical gear to the La Linea drug cartel. As it turns out, that case may be linked to "Operation Fast and Furious", the malevolent Justice Department project that shipped thousands of murder weapons to Mexican drug gangs.

Here's the interesting part -- over the transom comes the following tip:

Read Counts 23 and 24 of the indictment, on page 9 of 26 of the indictment, available here:

In Count 23, On January 25, 2011, federal agent(s) watched as two suspects purchased a total of 20 American Tactical 9mm pistols from an FFL in New Mexico, drove with two more persons about 27.5 miles in about 32 minutes to an apartment in El Paso, TX. They stopped at a Kmart and bought a black backpack. They entered the apartment with the black backpack and the box containing the 20 pistols. Shortly two individuals exited the apartment, with the now-full black backpack and drove, with the black backpack, in an unmarked Ford F-150 police vehicle registered to the village of Columbus, TX to the El Paso bus station (which is less than 1/4 mile from the Santa Fe Bridge Border Crossing between El Paso and Juarez).

In count 24, on January 27, 2011, federal agents watched as a Honda Pilot with Chihuahua plates occupied by two of the men from the Jan. 25 event, and an unknown female, pulled up to the apartment. Two men unloaded and carried into the apartment a large black suitcase. Two hours later, one of the men who had bought guns on Jan. 25 exited the apartment, wheeled the large black suitcase to the unmarked Ford F-150 police vehicle registered to the village of Columbus, NM, and drove to the El Paso bus station (yep, the one less than 1/4 mile from the Santa Fe Bridge Border Crossing between El Paso and Juarez).

So how do the statements made in those two counts in the indictment square with paragraph ten of the media's story announcing the arrests and unsealing of the indictment?

"As part of the investigation, every effort was made to seize firearms from defendants to prevent them from entering into Mexico, and no weapons were knowingly permitted to cross the border."

The agents followed the straw buyers for more than half-an-hour from Chaparral, NM to El Paso, TX. The agents watched as a bundle they had to suspect contained firearms was driven to a bus station within 1/4 mile of the border. The agents watched the apartment for two days. The agents then watched as a second container they might reasonably have suspected contained firearms was driven to the same bus station within 1/4 mile of the border.

How many opportunities did they have to interdict the firearms along the way?

How far from the border do they have to be when they avert their gaze to say they did not "knowingly" allow firearms to cross the border?

There is no indication that any of these 20 9mm pistols were seized or in any way accounted for. The activities reported in both counts 23 and 24 happened more than one month after the death of US Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry.

Those are damn good questions.

So I repeat: what did Eric Holder know? And when did he know it?

Israel Having Hard Time Boycotting Turkey

Dan from New York:

Israel’s security cabinet met in an emergency session today to decide on a response to Turkey’s expulsion of Israel’s ambassador. Among the actions discussed was a boycott of Turkish exports, but no decision was reached since none of the ministers present could think of anything Turkey actually exports. (BBC)

Thứ Bảy, 3 tháng 9, 2011

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Thứ Sáu, 2 tháng 9, 2011