Crony capitalism is when businesses form shady relationships with government officials to gain benefits through favoritism in areas such as contracting, government grants, tax breaks, or even legal rulings. Most Americans are concerned there has been a frightening expansion of this activity over the last number of years. Perhaps the most despicable form of crony capitalism has been on display in U.S. Bankruptcy Courts; where rich and powerful “vulture capital” hedge funds and their high end law firms have been able strip assets in numerous bankruptcies at the expense of minor creditors. Nate Thoma, acting as his own lawyer, fought for and won in Delaware against the vultures what could turn out to be a $3.3 billion judgment and may send some of the richest Americans who manage these hedge funds to long prison terms.

In the $327.9 billion Washington Mutual (WaMu) bankruptcy; there was $33 billion in assets and $8 billion debt after the busted bank was sold to J.P. Morgan. When WaMu filed for bankruptcy the vulture capitalist hedge funds of Appaloosa Management, Aurelius Capital, Centerbridge Partners, and Owl Creek Asset Management used their size and crony buddy-buddy knowledge of the Courts to quickly buy up depressed securities. These vultures used the size of their purchases of the distressed debt of WaMu to qualify to serve on the creditor’s committee to supposedly represent all large and small creditors.

Once on the committee, the vultures learned extremely valuable inside information about tax and litigation recoveries and settlement talks that would increase the recoveries to creditors of the bankruptcy estate. But instead of performing their fiduciary duty to represent all creditors of WaMu; the vultures used this top-secret information to trade WaMu stocks and bonds and negotiate terms for the reorganization that would generously line their pockets.

Unlike U.S. money managers that are required to report their investment activities to the SEC; hedge funds are usually set up off-shore on tax haven islands to shield disclosure of their activities. But in December 2008 a scandal broke that the Bernie Madoff hedge fund had bilked investors through a Ponzi scheme out of $64.8 billion. On March 12, 2009, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison and required to pay restitution of $170 billion. In an ode to the crony capitalism’s power to corrupt, Bernard Madoff sat on the Board of Directors of the Securities Industry Association and his beautiful niece, Shana Madoff, married an SEC compliance official after a 2005 investigation gave the Madoff firm a clean bill-of-health.

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OBAMA REGIME TAKES BILLIONS FROM TAXPAYERS – BLOWS IT ON FAILED GREEN PROJECTS–

The Obama Administration spent nearly half of the $38.6 billion ($17.2 billion) set aside for his green energy programs and was only able to create 3,545 permanent green jobs.
This comes out to a staggering $4,853,000 per job.

Obama continued to push green energy initiatives in his 2011 State of the Union Address.

The Obama Administration has blown billions of taxpayer dollars on green energy and has only succeeded in producing a few thousand jobs.

The Washington Post reported:

A $38.6 billion loan guarantee program that the Obama administration promised would create or save 65,000 jobs has created just a few thousand jobs two years after it began, government records show.

The program — designed to jump-start the nation’s clean technology industry by giving energy companies access to low-cost, government-backed loans — has directly created 3,545 new, permanent jobs after giving out almost half the allocated amount, according to Energy Department tallies.

President Obama has made “green jobs” a showcase of his recovery plan, vowing to foster new jobs, new technologies and more competitive American industries. But the loan guarantee program came under scrutiny Wednesday from Republicans and Democrats at a House oversight committee hearing about the collapse of Solyndra, a solar-panel maker whose closure could leave taxpayers on the hook for as much as $527 million.

The GOP lawmakers accused the administration of rushing approval of a guarantee of the firm’s project and failing to adequately vet it. “My goodness. We should be reviewing every one of these loan guarantee” projects, said Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).

Obama’s efforts to create green jobs are lagging behind expectations at a time of persistently high unemployment. Many economists say that because alternative- energy projects are so expensive and slow to ramp up, they are not the most efficient way to stimulate the economy.

“There are good reasons to create green jobs, but they have more to do with green than with jobs,” Princeton University economics professor and former Federal Reserve vice chairman Alan Blinder has said.

And you really wonder why the US economy was downgraded? With leadership like this?

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The Wall Street Journal recently published a piece that USA incomes have fallen for the past three years and are now at 1996 household income levels.  The National Institute of Labor Relations Research looked at Texas and Illinois to see how far those states have fallen.  And, what probably comes as no surprise to most, Texas has not fallen while Illinois significantly dropped.  Illinois takes a dive (-7.3%) as Texans’ income rose (3.7%) when compared to 1996 household incomes.

Let’s face it – there are few things more annoying than Science.  We conservatives need to take a firm stand against Science in all its forms.  In fact, Science sucks.

But let’s not confuse “Science” with “science.”  The regular, boring, old lower-case “science” has to do with applying the scientific method to observed phenomena in order to expand our knowledge of the universe.  It requires a rigorous analysis of empirical evidence and the testing of hypotheses without preconceived, concrete, politicized notions of what the truth must be.  In contrast, “Science” is a ration of pseudo-plausible horseshit asserted by liberals who try to occupy the intellectual high ground and then shut you up by basically saying you are too dumb to express an opinion.

Liberal “Science” is a bludgeon that superficially looks like what we understand to be science, but bears no more than a casual relationship to it.  It is a way of trying to end the debate before it begins – or, more precisely, before you begin.  That leaves the liberals’ nonsense as the first and last word on the subject.  And then they win.

It’s a nice trick – if you let them get away with it.  So don’t.

Call them Scientistians – liberal doofs who try to wrap themselves in the white lab coat of objective reason for only as long as it supports their particular pinko policy prescription du jour.

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Today, in 1992, the British Pound Sterling is forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism after being the target of an assault by speculator George Soros. In the end, it probably helped the UK, since this was s contributing factor in keeping it out of the Euro.

Emails released late Thursday night show that officials in the White House were privately very concerned over the viability of Solyndra even as they publicly declared the solar panel manufacturer was in good shape.

“The optics of a Solyndra default will be bad,” an official from the Office of Management and Budget wrote in a Jan. 31 email to a senior OMB official. “The timing will likely coincide with the 2012 campaign season heating up.”

One would hope that an official in OMB would be more concerned that the federal government had just wasted $535 million on the now-bankrupt “green jobs” company, but instead the e-mails reveal ongoing discussions over the political aspects of the doomed venture.  Additional e-mails show that as early as May 2010, right before President Obama’s famous photo-op at the Solyndra headquarters, White House officials were ignoring and downplaying industry reports that Solyndra was in trouble.

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This was a victorious week for Republicans, as Republican candidate Bob Turner defeated the Democrat, David Weprin. The vacant seat of “tweet this” Anthony Weiner was up for grabs. The 9th district of New York which typically votes Democrat spoke loudly against the current administration. Many of the residents of that district are Jewish and expressed dismay for President Obama’s stance on Israel. A fact that was pointed out by talk show host, Audrey Russo on a recent episode of The Rick Amato Show.

A Democratic media consultant told The Atlantic that if they had let Weiner “go to rehab and then reapportioned the district out of existence, they’d have saved everybody a million dollars’. Is that the Democrats answer to silencing the opposition? Redistricting?

Not long ago, I spoke to Tom Del Beccaro, Chairman of the Republican Party of California. We here in California recently underwent redistricting. Mr. Del Beccaro told me that Republican Senate seats were lost in the new districts due to the map changes. He went on to say that much of the boundary changes made little or no sense. It only succeeded in reducing GOP seats.

Well, here is a bit of poetic justice. State Senator from Pennsylvania, Dominic Pileggi has proposed a plan on how Pennsylvania will divvy up its electoral votes. With the support of the governor of Pennsylvania Tom Corbett, Senator Pileggi unveiled his plan.

In 2012, his state will have 20 electoral votes. One for each of their 18 members of the US House of Representatives, and 2 for US Senators. Under Mr. Pilleggi’s proposal, there would be 2 for the statewide vote. 18 would be for the Congressional district in regard to the presidential vote.

Both Pilleggi and Corbett argue that this is a fairer way to divide electoral votes. Saying it would represent the views of the people more. Maine and Nebraska both have this system in place.

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JAY CARNEY:  Sir, word from the Senate on your American Jobs Act.  Majority Leader Reid is complaining of constipation.  Says he’s been pushing since yesterday, but he can’t pass the bill.

OBAMA:  Merde!  After I did all the heavy lifting.  Damn do-nothing Congress.

VALERIE JARRETT:  Good thing you’re leaving the country next week, sir.  No one can blame you if the measure tanks when you’re abroad on official business.

OBAMA: Where am I off to?

BILL DALEY:  You’ll begin your working tour of Scotland’s golf courses on Monday, sir.  Meanwhile, the First Lady and several dozen close friends and family members are already aboard the presidential yacht, Alinsky, en route to the Galapagos for a holiday.

OBAMA:  Message her confirmation that we’ll rendezvous a week from Friday on the Côte d’Azur.  When do I return home?

DALEY:  Um, we want to be flexible, sir.  Tell him, Poll Boy.

CHUCK TODD:  Recent surveys indicate hiring spikes and an uptick in consumer confidence when you’re away, sir.  It’s as if some great weight was lifted from. . . . .

OBAMA:  I get it, Chuck.  All right.  Add Ireland to my itinerary.  Inform Michelle I’ll join her on the Riviera October 1^st.  Eric, do you have this “Gunwalker” thing under control? (more…)

While President Obama’s recent pushback on the EPA’s proposed ozone standard raised hopes among businesses and consumers – three quarters of whom now think that America is overregulated – he seems to think that he should be able to solve all his problems by eliminating one.

But last time we counted, there were ten regulations on Eric Cantor’s list of top job-destroyers, and seven on the list of billion-dollar rules that Obama sent to Speaker Boehner.

Here’s a look at some of what’s still out there:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):

The EPA’s Utility Maximum Achievable Control Technology rule (MACT) rule requires coal-fired plants to reduce emissions of particular toxic air pollutants – namely mercury emissions. As is typical with these pie-in-the-sky EPA regulations, the MACT rule would require plants to achieve standards that are not economically feasible and/or install equipment that is not commercially available.

The Utility MACT rule could force the shut down of enough coal-fired power plants to equal about 30-70 gigawatts of electricity generation nationwide, resulting in double-digit rate hikes for consumers and costly upgrades to some power plants.

The EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) will regulate emissions from coal-fueled power plants in the name of preventing polluted air to cross over from state to state.  However, the unnecessarily stringent demands and unrealistic implementation timeline are forcing plants across the country to shut down or cut back, which is predicted to stress the power grid to the point of blackouts.  Texas-based energy company Luminant announced a first wave of shutdowns and layoffs as the rule’s compliance deadline moves closer.

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB):

The Obama-appointed NLRB is backing Big Labor by leading a crusade against Boeing for opening a new plant and creating jobs in South Carolina. This is all because South Carolina is a right-to-work state where workers aren’t forced to join a union if they don’t want to.

National Mediation Board (NMB):

The NMB is the federal body that oversees labor relations in two key transportation industries – railroads and airlines.  The NMB has enacted changes to the rules that govern union organizing of air and rail workers that allow a minority of workers to vote to unionize the entire body of a company workforce, when unionization has historically required a majority vote.

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Jesse Jackson, Andre Carson, Maxine Waters and Walter Fauntroy are the new face of “black-on-black crime.”

The term black-on-black crime was coined in the eighties to publicize shockingly disproportionate amounts of violent crimes perpetrated within the black community.  Now, instead of Bloods and Crips, the new gang threatening black neighborhoods can be called the “Elite Liberal Libelers.”  With political power and acceptance, the ELL holds an even tighter grip on black America’s throat.

The ELL’s rhetorical drive-by shooting style wounds the spirit and kills hope and the notion that blacks can find equality and prosperity by their own toil and purpose. These assaults on character and intelligence, unfortunately, come from within the trusted and intimate quarters of recognized black leaders.

The ELL demands acceptance of life at the bottom, handicapping potential growth and progress., and has no scruples finding a scapegoat or excuse.  Like the neighborhood drug dealer, they figure someone will make the money off poor kids.  May as well be by one of their own.

And words can be deadlier than bullets.  Whereas a bullet only claims a single victim, the reach of words is infinite — infiltrating countless souls and minds. Such ill-will can also have generational consequences — undermining core beliefs and self-worth.  Fatalism and despondency roll off ELL tongues from a poisonous well of lies, self destruction and defeat that’s deadlier than crack cocaine.

Consider ELL attacks on the tea parties:

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You may recall that there has been an e-strike going on at the Huffington Post since March. In union parlance, a strike means, if you honor unions, you should not cross a picket line—even an e-picket line.

According to the Newspaper Guild (part of the Communications Workers of America):

In addition, we are asking that our members and all supporters of fair and equitable compensation for journalists join us in shining a light on the unprofessional and unethical practices of this company.

Just as we would ask writers to stand fast and not cross a physical picket line, we ask that they honor this electronic picket line.

As a reminder, the company with the “unprofessional and unethical practices” that the union is referring is Huffington Post—Arianna Huffington’s website that AOL purchased in a $315 million boondoggle—you know, the one that “unfairly” exploits bloggers and children as young as 13.

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Smoking in bars and restaurants has been banned in New York City since 2003 but Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently added beaches, parks, and pedestrian plazas to the long and growing list of places where smoking is verboten in the Big Apple. “Sin taxes” on cigarettes have driven the average price of a pack to more than $11.

Yet in a city renowned for its innovation and drive, smokers have found ways to work around government attempts at social engineering. These include the booming “loosie” trade, where street entreprenuers risk arrest to sell loose cigarettes for a dollar each on the streets of Manhattan; tobacco crops blooming in Brooklyn; and a thriving Soho bar/restaurant that survived the smoking ban thanks to an obscure grandfather clause.

With so much tax revenue being lost to the black market, and even the green market, perhaps it’s time for a mayor who made billions in the free market to consider allowing business owners to set their own policies, and let the marketplace sort out the demand for smoking and smoke-free establishments.

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In recent weeks, I have been interested in Google and in the telecommunications companies.  It’s not the typical “institutional left” topic on which I usually tend to focus.  At least, not on the surface.  The truth is, these industries ARE about the institutional left.  And if the Obama administration and the media reformists on the left get their way, the institutional left will achieve some very significant goals over the next few years in their push to see all media publicly owned.  That is, unless we all start paying more attention.

Before I give you the big picture, let me start with a recent example.

Last month, Sprint, one of the big three telecommunications providers, raised its early termination fees (ETFs) on “advanced devices.”  These devices are smartphones, tablets, netbooks and notebooks, as Sprint outlines in one of its support documents online.  As MSNBC.com explains, ETFs are the carrier’s way of retaining customers, and Sprint has essentially doubled its fees to $350 beginning September 9^th.

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I first met you less than a week ago. Back then you were still just “Bob.”

Yes, now it’s “Honorable Bob.” (laughs)

What are your first impressions, on your first day on the job?

I was impressed with the warm welcome, the collegial spirit. I met with a lot of people today. The New York delegation was particualrly helpful and friendly. I was introduced on the floor by Charlie Rangel. We had a nice chat. The New York group works together on a number of things, which was good to hear. Joe Crowley explained a few things to me that we can work together on. It was all very positive. I walked in feeling there was more contentiousness, but didnt see that at all today.

What is your number one priority as a new Member of Congress?

My priorities right now are all logisitics–to set up the offices, both here and in the district, to get the right staff and the right flow of information from the constituents to the office, and get the right legislative agenda and priorities set up. I also want to try to get on the right committees. That’s a function of availability and interest.

Speaking of that legislative agenda, what’s the first thing you want to accomplish?

I’m primarily interested in the impact of the Dodd-Frank bill on New York State and New York City. We’re the world’s financial capital–banking, insurance, trade, commodities, et cetera–and a lot of the impact, or the unintended consequences, of Dodd-Frank will fall on New York, and we are only beginning to sift that out now. That is going to take a little direction, fine-tuning, and even elimination of parts of that law to protect New York jobs and growth in these areas. I’ll be paying special attention to that. (more…)

Here we go again, Ohio.

After being swept out of every statewide office, and losing the Ohio House last November, Ohio Democrats don’t think that that election has any consequences.

Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern

First, of course, they and their union allies spent over a million dollars to pay people to collect signatures and force a referendum to repeal Senate Bill 5, which contains reasonable reforms to government employee collective bargaining laws. That is now Issue 2 on the November 2011 ballot.

Next, they started a drive to collect signatures to repeal House Bill 194, which enacts common sense election reforms. It would eliminate the current loophole allowing someone to register to vote, and actually cast their vote on the same day, thus reducing the propensity for fraud. It also reduces the early voting period to 21 days. Somehow wanting you to believe that three weeks is not enough time to cast a ballot, Ohio Democrats call the bill “voter supression” and have again enlisted labor unions to finance and organize a petition drive. They have until September 30 to submit the required number of signatures.

Now, they are threatening another petition drive. This time, they are unhappy with the new Congressional districts drawn up by Republicans. It hasn’t even been voted on yet, let alone signed, but Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern is already weighing legal action or even another referendum drive. They are shocked and appalled that Republicans drew districts favorable to Republicans.

You may remember Redfern from when he referred to the majority of Ohioans who oppose Obamacare as “these f***ers”. Here are some things to remember when you consider Redfern’s newest source of outrage.

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During a radio interview Wednesday morning, Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) made a startlingly candid statement about taxpayers and the wealth they earn and produce. It was her Joe the Plumber moment in that it broke the Democratic playbook rule about revealing the left’s true intentions.

She was interviewed on Chicago radio station WLS 890 AM by hosts Don Wade and Roma. You can listen to the entire interview here, but the part about taxes comes in around the 13:50 point.

Don Wade played a question that was posed to the GOP candidates at the recent Tea Party Debate in Florida. A young man at the debate asked a simple enough question: “Out of every dollar that I earn, how much do you think that I deserve to keep?”

Her response?

“I’ll put it this way. You don’t deserve to keep all of it and it’s not a question of deserving because what government is, is those things that we decide to do together. And there are many things that we decide to do together like have our national security. Like have police and fire. What about the people that work at the National Institutes of Health who are looking for a cure for cancer?”

No one disputes that government needs some level of taxpayer revenue to function. The problem is with Schakowsky’s response and what it reveals about the left.

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The Teamsters union has been mired in the mob underworld even before Jimmy Hoffa. Jr.’s dad took over the union. During a congressional hearing, Robert F. Kennedy* said, “I told [Jimmy Hoffa, Sr.] frankly that I did not think he was tough enough to rid his union of the gangsters and hoodlums he had put in power.”

Even today, when any legitimate business interest would have been put out of business by the federal government, the Teamsters remain under federal court ordered oversight for its organized crime connections:

WHEREAS, the International Union entered into a Consent Decree with the United States on March 14, 1989 to resolve a civil lawsuit titled United States v. Teamsters, and WHEREAS, in entering into the Consent Decree, the International Union acknowledged allegations of past problems of organized crime corruption in various elements of the IBT [Teamsters]…

When Hoffa tells his army to take someone out, it is a serious matter. In one particular case, the National Labor Relations Board required the Teamsters union to post a sign to remind Hoffa’s army of what not to do. Here’s a small part of the four-page document:

WE WILL NOT threaten to kill or inflict bodily harm, make throat slashing motions, make gun pointing motions, challenge or threaten to fight or assault employees, threaten to sexually assault non-striking employees or their family members, threaten to follow non-striking employees to their homes, use racial epithets or obscene gestures at non-striking employees or otherwise threaten unspecified reprisals on any non-striking employee of Overnite or any member of his or her family or any employee of a neutral employee doing business with Overnite … (more…)

The California solar company, Solyndra, heralded by the Obama administration as a prime example of how the Recovery Act created new jobs while promoting his vision of renewable energy, is closing their doors. Just over a year ago, Obama himself spoke at the facility, praising it as “a testament to American ingenuity and dynamism.” Once a beacon of solar light in the progressive green jobs agenda, Solyndra had received a $535 million federal loan with the help of newly minted energy secretary, Steven Chu, only to find themselves staring down bankruptcy and the release of more than 1,100 workers.

Lying within that massive federal loan was a number of sub-awards to other vendors, 40 payments of which were greater than $25,000 each. The largest sub-award went to another administration favorite, CH2M Hill, to the tune of $9.6 million for their construction engineering services. The company is a $6.3 billion consulting, engineering, and construction firm, and shares some similarities to the failed Solyndra. In fact, CH2M used the nearly $10 million sub-award to design Solyndra’s solar manufacturing plant in Fremont, California. Besides that amount, CH2M is also a major beneficiary of the stimulus, having been awarded four of the top ten contracts from stimulus funding last summer – to the tune of $1.2 billion. As of this April, the company boasts of $1.6 billion in contracts from the Recovery Act.

Perhaps even more apparent is another similarity to the Solyndra company – CH2M Hill’s decline in employment. Reports of layoffs at CH2M began in January when KEPR-TV announced that 1,350 layoffs were coming in September due to the end of stimulus funding. The company recently organized a job fair for those affected by these layoffs, and an additional 1,000 layoffs at the contractor’s Hanford reservation. The job fair comes exactly one year after it was revealed that the company was inflating jobs reports by using a metric known as ‘lives touched’.

How did companies such as Solyndra and CH2M Hill become such lucky recipients of taxpayer money through the stimulus?

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According to my calculations, it’s only a matter of time before tea partiers are called reptilian aliens from outer space. I would say zombies, but sadly that was already done by some charming people and their little video game, “Tea Party Zombies Must Die”. Just in the past few weeks, tea partiers have been labeled “terrorists,” “S.O.B.s,” “hobbits,” and “barbarians” who can go “straight to hell,” of course after they’re done, according to Representative Andre Carson, hanging African-Americans from the nearest tree.

I’m actually starting to lose track of the name-calling, but suffice it to say, the Left and its elected allies like Joe Biden and Maxine Waters, are upping the vitriol of their rhetoric. That’s what people do when they’re losing an argument: they either change the terms of the debate or resort to ad hominem attacks. Of course, name-calling means nothing.  Already bereft of ideas, it seems the Left has also forgotten the little schoolyard chant about sticks and stones.

But beyond the name-calling, it is becoming deadly serious - our economy is tanking. Unemployment has barely budged from between 9-10%, and absolutely zero jobs were added in the month of August. Our President is wandering about between his and Michelle’s vacations, with clearly no idea of what to do. It should be pointed out that we are probably expecting too much from a former community organizer who never understood how jobs and capital are created in the first place. After getting beaten handily in 2009 in Virginia and New Jersey, 2010 nationally, hamstrung in Wisconsin in 2011 (I would say humiliated as well: after dumping tens of millions of dollars into the fight against Scott Walker’s Budget Repair Bill, the Supreme Court race and attempts to flip the majority in the State Senate thru re-call elections, the unions failed on all three counts), the Left, particularly the public sector unions, know they’re up against it in 2012.

The incredible, shrinking President’s numbers are, well, shrinking and the Democrats were already going to have a tough time holding the Senate in 2012: with the economy still dragging and unemployment high, it’s hard to believe holding the Senate will get any easier between now and November of 2012.

Seeing the trends in the poll numbers, and realizing the tide is against them, the Left is desperate. When people start flailing about, using harsh rhetoric, it’s an indication that there is mounting frustration. And one gets the sense that the public sector unions, while maybe not on their last gasp, are certainly feeling cornered and very threatened.  The questions I have for the tea party, and those that identify with it, is what do you plan on doing to seize the moment in 2012? If people thought the successes of 2010, and even 2011, was going to fix things, they were mistaken. Our victories in 2010 were just the beginning of a long road back to true American exceptionalism.

American Majority has been planning its Training Bomb (www.trainingbomb.com) for a while now (yes, we swiped the term from the Ron Paul “Money Bombs”), with it having grown to trainings in 14 different states being held on Constitution Day, September 17^th. The point of the trainings is to do the things that move the political dial and lead to political success. We of course believe in free enterprise and limited government, but what will make these ideas become reality? Political victories. Politics is policy.  Those who win politically that make policy.

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