President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign is promising to raise enormous sums of money,  by some estimates and unprecedented $1 billion.  The Finance Chair for the 2012 campaign,  Matthew Barzun, is reactivating the 2008 financial network of campaign bundlers to meet that goal.   In my new book, Throw Them All Out, I expose the scandal that is outrageous and typical: those who are raising money for Obama received large amounts of taxpayer-funded energy stimulus money from the Obama Administration.   It offers a new form of “recycling” when it comes to campaign dollars that is unprecedented.

Consider the sweetheart deals and contracts that have come the way of some of President Obama’s biggest fundraisers:

• Financier David Shaw has raised $1.08 million for Obama’s reelection so far.  Shaw’s firm D.E. Shaw is heavily invested in two wind projects that received taxpayer money:  $115 million for First Wind,  and $117 million for Kahuku Wind.
• Financier John Rogers is a board Exelon board member has raised $1.2 million,  and Frank Clark, an executive Exelon,  has raised $153,000 thus far.  Exelon has been approved for $646 million in Department of Energy loan guarantees for a project called AV Solar Ranch One.  They also received a $200 million Department of Energy cash grant through a company they own called Peco Energy for smart-grid work.
• Financier Steve Westly has raised $302,000 so far.  Westly has held large investment stakes in numerous companies that have received stimulus grants,  including Amyris Biotechnologies ($24 million), Tesla Motors ($465 million),  as well as Edeniqu and Recyclebank.
• Bruce Heyman of Goldman Sachs, who has had three energy projects approved for taxpayer money  Cogentrix ($90 million),  First Solar ($4.7 million), and U.S. Geothermal ($96.8 million) has already raised $366,884 for the Obama 2012 reelection campaign.
• Daniel Weiss of the Angelino Group has raised $39,000 so far.   Weiss’ firm is a major equity holder in Powerspan,  we received a $100 million cash grant for smart grid projects.
• Steve Spinner has raised $31,900 to this point.   Spinner is a green energy investor who worked at the Department of Energy as a “strategic advisor” to the loan program.

Other recipients of energy stimulus money have continued cutting checks.  Ian Cumming of Leucadia,  which has had several large projects approved,  has given $10,000 so far to Obama for America and the Obama Victory Fund 2012.

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Today’s congressional insider trading hearings led by Rep. Spencer Bachus showcased a carefully selected list of expert witnesses designed to protect the status quo and thwart real reform.

Among Rep. Bachus’s list of experts were Indiana University Professor Donna Nagy, Jack Maskell of the Congressional Research Service and Robert Walker, who formerly served as a lawyer on the House Ethics Committee. All three argued that current laws are fine as written. However, when Enforcement Division Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission Robert Khuzami was asked whether the SEC had ever brought action against any member of Congress or congressional staffers for insider trading, Mr. Khuzami confessed that if they had he wasn’t aware of it.

Rep. Bachus’s shell game is hardly a surprise. In the wake of the 60 Minutes investigation and my book’s revelations about Rep. Bachus’s 40 stock options trades during the 2008 financial crisis, he is desperately trying to reposition himself as a reformer, going so far as to now announce a plan to have members of Congress establish blind trusts. That is great as window dressing, but why not give the American people a clear picture of what is actually going on in Washington?

For starters, instead of stacking the deck, Rep. Bachus should have had a panel of experts who hold diverse views. Why not call a witness like UCLA Law Professor Steve Bainbridge who, in addition to being an expert on insider trading laws, has sounded the alarm bells for years on the insufficiency of our current laws?

Moreover, why not have an honest discussion about the fact that the SEC has never pursued congressional insider trading cases? We know the answer. Congress approves the SEC budget every year. And remember what happened when the FBI investigated Rep. William Jefferson for taking bribes? Congress threatened to slash the FBI budget!

The American public has lost faith in our political leaders precisely because of the sort of ridiculous show that Rep. Bachus put on today.

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I’ve been called many things in the last two weeks  with the release of my new book Throw Them All Out by politicians from both political parties, but never a “sock puppet.”

That is how Robert Kennedy Jr. has chosen to respond to my book Throw Them All Out where I disclose the fact that a politically-connected solar company called Brightsource  (of which Mr. Kennedy’s firm is the largest investor) landed a sweetheart billion-dollar plus taxpayer-guaranteed loan.

What has been so remarkable to me with the reaction to the book is the incredible disconnect between those on the inside getting these deals and those of us on the outside watching the rich getting rich with our money.   I think the vast majority of people had no problem with the late Steve Jobs getting fabulously wealthy.  He simply provided products and services people wanted.  But those getting richer courtesy of our money and special loans? People are sick of it.

The bottom line is that Brightsource Energy got a sweetheart deal and it did so thanks to political connections. This is a company that admittedly has huge problems.

Kennedy never disputes that Brightsource got the money, nor that a former Principal at his firm, Sanjay Wagle, was a fundraiser for Obama and went to work in the Department of Energy’s alternative energy grant program after the 2008 election.   Nor does he dispute that Brightsource admitted in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the Ivanpah project is highly risky, or that Brightsource is in financial trouble.  (The company is $1.8 billion in debt,  had total revenue of just $13.5 million in 2010 and ran an operating loss of $71 million.)  The company openly admits that its technology may not perform as planned and that it faces technological challenges.  It’s also curious to note on the SEC filing (on page 42 linked above) that Brightsource is spending almost six times as much on “marketing, general and administrative” costs than research and development. And more than twice in those areas than it is spending on project development. Does this sound like a company that could survive without taxpayer money?

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During the 2004 presidential election, President Clinton’s former chief of staff and President Obama’s current Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta offered Sen. John Kerry and his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry a sage piece of advice. The Senior Senator from Massachusetts would do well to heed it now:

“[The Kerrys] will have to seriously consider putting [their investments] in a blind trust,” Panetta said. “All of us who have served in government have had to do that.  In the end, it is the better way to go, because it removes any suspicion that a decision is self-serving. You have enough problems just making a decision, without dealing with the concern you may be putting money in your pocket.

Secretary Panetta is right. In the spirit of transparency and maintaining the public trust, Sen. Kerry must place his assets in a blind trust.

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The collapse of MF Global, the brokerage dealer headed by former New Jersey Governor and Goldman exec Jon Corzine, may seem like just another case of Wall Street fat cats paying the price for their speculation (actually, though Corzine may have run the firm into the ground, he’s reportedly going to receive a $12 million golden parachute).  The MF Global affair, however, signifies something even deeper:  how crony capitalists like Jon Corzine have used state pension funds for their political and financial benefit.

MF Global has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy after Corzine led the firm to buy big holdings of debt from Spain, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, and Ireland at a discount.  Now federal regulators are investigating how hundreds of millions in customer money has gone missing.  But these were not simply financiers.  Some of Corzine’s biggest clients were pension funds for teachers, public employees, and others.   The fifth largest shareholder was TIAA-CREF, which owned 6% of the stock (MF Global’s Bankruptcy Petition is here).  In 2008,  before Corzine arrived, MF Global was sued by numerous pension funds over losses they had sustained because of MF Global trades, including the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System, Policemen’s Annuity Benefit Fund of Chicago, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund, and the State-Boston Retirement System.  MF Global settled the suit for $90 million.

The MF Global bankruptcy will cost pension funds a lot.  Pension funds around the country will likely take severe hits as their shares in the firm, bonds, or other holdings suffer huge losses.  The Oregon pension fund had a heavy stake MF Global.  Others are likely to follow. (more…)

The whole Pigford affair brings up a host of issues that need to be addressed. Was there racial discrimination at the U.S. Department of Agriculture? All the sources we talked to said yes. Was there a need to redress the issue when necessary? Again, all the sources we talked to said yes. Has there been massive fraud? Everyone we spoke with said yes. Estimates of how bad it is range from 50% of claims to 90%.

Recently Anderson Cooper on CNN reported and accepted Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s claim that there were only three cases of fraud in Pigford. Where did Vilsack get his numbers? He must have Googled for them. Obviously his office isn’t capable of even basic research. Nor apparently is CNN, which didn’t challenge him on the question. There are FBI files in Little Rock, Arkansas, which demonstrate instances of fraudulent claims. We’ve spoken with an FBI agent who say the files are there and available. Even black activist organizations that support Pigford have acknowledged that many of the people signing up and receiving Pigford checks never farmed. Eddie Slaughter, with the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, has looked at the USDA numbers which show that there are far more claims than there were black farmers in America. He has said, “What that means is that most of these people were never farmers, because the farmers had loans.” Another organization, Concerned Black Farmers of Tennessee, tracked 70 individual Pigford claims in Tipton County and found that 63 percent of those that were approved had no records to establish that they had ever even farmed. Yet, each of those individuals received a check from the USDA for $50,000. (more…)

Marco Rubio wins. Grayson is gone–beaten handily by a terrific candidate and former state senator named Daniel Webster. (He will live up to his name.)  And Republicans look like they are going to pick up three other Congressional seats in the Sunshine state: Steve Southerland has beaten Cong. Allen Boyd,  Colonel Allen West is taking down Congressman Ron Klein, and Congresswoman Kosmas is losing to Sandy Adams.

But there is more good news.  Rick Scott has been leading all night, and  Republicans will control the entire cabinet for only the second time in state history by winning the Agriculture Commissioner race (Adam Putnam),  Chief Financial Officer (Jeff Atwater),  and Pam Bondi (Attorney General).  These are all vibrant conservatives who have great political futures.

Oh,  and then there is Referendum 1.  It’s non-binding,  but it calls for the federal government to balance the budget.   It passed 72% to 28%,

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In early voting Marco Rubio has been declared the winner in the U.S. Senate race and Rick Scott (R) leads in the Governor’s contest. Races you may not have heard of but represent possible huge wins for conservatives:

Steve Southerland looks like he is going to beat incumbent Congressman Allen Boyd (D). Why is this a big deal? A Republican has not won this seat since Reconstruction: 1866. Dems outnumber Repubs by roughly 2 to 1 in this district. Boyd, who has held the seat since 1996, has never received less than 58% of the vote. (He ran unopposed in 2006.) Boyd liked to fashion himself as a moderate Democrat. Voters in the north Florida district are no longer buying it. Southerland is no RINO. Opposed to Obamacare, big government, cap and trade, etc.

Col. Allen West leads incumbent Cong. Ron Klein (D) in Palm Beach. West is a war hero and a strong fiscal conservative.

Pam Bondi looks like she is going to win Attorney General for the State of Florida. Her Democrat opponent, Dan Gelber makes Obama look moderate on some matters. Bondi is a strong conservative jurist. She’s a rising star for Republicans

It also looks like voters are also going to make the right choice on a number of ballot initiatives: they are apparently going to reject ACORN designed efforts to redraw congressional districts, repeal the public financing of campaigns, and give property tax relief to soldiers deployed overseas…. (more…)

Okay, it’s time to finally admit it:  Barack Obama hates businessmen.  Not just certain businessmen, mind you, but the entire profession.

Of course President Obama will deny this.   He told Businessweek magazine in a recent interview that he is not anti-business and that he believes in the private sector.  But the evidence is overwhelming,  and it helps explain why he is pursuing kamakazi-like economic policies that will damage the private sector in America.

Obama has demonized just about every business sector in America.  Through the 2008 campaign to the present,  he has gone after credit card companies, the coal industry, mortgage companies, real estate companies, steelmakers, utilities, drug companies, doctors, oil companies, Wall Street, defense contractors, and health insurance companies, just to name a few.  In each case he has dinged them for greed, taking excessive profits, and failing to put people first.  His criticisms have not been over minor matters but over their basic core functions, and their values or lack of them.

Obama demonstrates almost complete ignorance about the private sector and it’s no wonder:  he has so little experience in it.  He has spent his adult life in college, teaching college, and organizing communities.  The one private sector job he has held, for a consulting firm in New York, he recounts as a terrible experience.  In his memoirs he describes the experience as working for a private business “like a spy behind enemy lines.”  He also recounts in his memoirs that the multinational corporations in the Indonesia of his youth were propelling the average worker “into deeper despair.”  He likened the presence of corporations in his native Africa to a form of “neocolonialism.”  Michelle Obama has beseeched young people, “We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we are asking young people to do.  Don’t go into corporate America.  You know, become teachers, work for the community,  be a social worker, be a nurse….move out of the money-making industry, into the helping industry.”

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