Exurban Jon noted on Twitter that the bankrupt rent seeking solar firm Solyndra's web site still contains this visual endorsement from the Industrialist-in-Chief (screencapped for posterity):

He should have checked out their profits-to-earnings ratios first, but hey, being a SCOAMF means you never have to feel sorry about blowing a half-billion dollars worth of Other People's Money™, amiright?

Rich Lowry over at NRO suggests calling this Obama's Enron.

If the praises of high-ranking Obama-administration officials were a viable business plan, the solar-panel maker Solyndra would be an industrial juggernaut. Vice President Biden insisted that the jobs created by the California-based firm would “allow America to compete and to lead like we did in the 20th century.”

In a visit to Solyndra in May 2010, President Obama called it “a testament to American ingenuity and dynamism.” He all but redefined the traditional statement of Americanness to encompass motherhood, apple pie, and the conversion of sunlight into electricity through cylindrical thin-film solar cells, the specialty of Solyndra.

You mean a guy with no practical experience at ... well ... anything would believe this crap? Shocking! As they say, read the whole thing.

Jonathan Alter, can you hear us now?

Posted by: andy at 10:22 AM | Comments (54)
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The New York Daily News is the liberal-leaning tabloid. More of a blue-collar liberalism (as opposed to the New York Times' moneyed-set liberalism), but still liberal.

So it's a little surprising it it endorsed the Republican Bob Turner.

After a private-sector career as a television industry executive, Turner has a real-world sense of the country's fiscal distress and of the pressing need to jump-start employment opportunities.

Voters in the overwhelmingly Democratic Brooklyn-Queens district have responded well to Turner despite his sin of being a Republican.

With no name recognition and little money, he scored an astounding 40% of the vote against the well-known Weiner last year. And the polls now put Turner within easy striking distance of Democratic rival David Weprin.

Turner has the right central priority: tackling the federal deficit and creating a climate for job growth.

He accepts the truth that America cannot climb out of its hole without reforming Medicare and Social Security. He put on the table such measures as raising the retirement eligibility age for people who are 55 or younger.

At the same time, unlike so many Republicans, he says he is open to raising revenues to cut the deficit. He cites closing tax loopholes as an avenue to collecting dough and said he would have accepted the $4 trillion deficit-cutting plan that eluded President Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner.

That position places Turner somewhere on the same page as President Obama, who has called for a "balanced" approach to fiscal policy.

Among the points listed against Democratic candidate Weprin: That this idiot running for Congress had to guess at the much-publicized federal debt, and guessed... $4 trillion.

Another knock against Weprin: He seems to be either a coward or a flake, skipping out of a recent debate by claiming Hurricane Irene, long since dissipated, had "disrupted his schedule."

Turner was actually evacuated from his home due to the storm and made the debate. The buffoon Weprin realized he would expose his stupidity further, and so just skipped out.

He claimed he had important meetings he had to attend to. Instead of attending the long-planned debate. The debate's organizers were not amused.

That account was immediately mocked by the debateÂ’s organizers, the Juniper Park Civic Association and The Times Newsweekly, a newspaper in Queens and Brooklyn whose leaders said that Mr. WeprinÂ’s campaign aides had previously expressed reservations about the format of the debate.

Robert F. Holden, the president of the civic association, said that Mr. WeprinÂ’s aides had sought to change the event from a debate to a forum, without a face-to-face dialogue between the candidates. Mr. Holden said he had rejected that suggestion.

And Maureen E. Walthers, publisher and editor of The Times Newsweekly, said that the Weprin campaign had requested that debate questions be given to the campaign ahead of time, in writing. Ms. Walthers said she refused.

“He is a coward,” Ms. Walthers said. “He obviously did not want to do the debate.”

“As far as I am concerned,” she added, “he disenfranchised all the voters in this area.”

...

By the end of Monday, however, it was clear that Mr. Weprin had antagonized the wrong debate organizers.

...

By bowing out of the debate, the article said, Mr. Weprin “was living up to his reputation as a career politician relying on appointments and back-door politics to survive in the complicated Ninth Congressional District.”

The headline on the article read: “Weprin to Middle Village, Maspeth, Glendale & Ridgewood — DROP DEAD.”

Turner goofed on him for that.

If you're interested, video from the earlier debate begins here. A truncated highlight reel is here.

Interestingly, Turner says "this is the most irresponsible, ridiculous government that I have ever seen," to applause (from about half the room).

Bear in mind, this is New York City. Not the most liberal part of New York City, but this is the blue of the blue. And he's getting applause attacking a Democratic president.

The local Tea Party, incidentally, is strongly supporting him. more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:42 AM | Comments (342)
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Via RD in the sidebar, and also tipped by Drew--

The supervisor of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation in Phoenix specifically mentioned Fast and Furious in at least one email to a White House national security official, and two other White House colleagues were briefed on reports from the supervisor, according to White House emails and a senior administration official.

But the senior administration official said the emails, obtained Thursday by The Times, did not prove that anyone in the White House was aware of the covert "investigative tactics" of the operation.

"The emails validate what has been said previously, which is no one at the White House knew about the investigative tactics being used in the operation, let alone any decision to let guns walk," said the official, who was not authorized to speak about it publicly. "To the extent that some [national security staff members] were briefed on the top lines of ongoing federal efforts, so were members of Congress."

He identified the three White House officials who were briefed as Kevin M. O'Reilly, director of North American Affairs for the White House national security staff; Dan Restrepo, the president's senior Latin American advisor; and Greg Gatjanis, a White House national security official.

LAT article here.

The LAT gets the story wrong almost immediately. They present it as just a slip-up when they claim--

The operation allowed firearms to be illegally purchased, with the goal of tracking them to Mexican drug cartels. But the effort went out of control after agents lost track of many of the weapons.

Actually, no effort was made to track the weapons. That's either the biggest or second biggest part of this scandal.

Posted by: Ace at 08:08 AM | Comments (150)
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John Boehner and Eric Cantor have been hammering Obama on the danger his regulation fetish poses to the economy.

Two days ago Obama defended many of his regulations and pointed out many were just proposals that might not be imposed. Today, by chance I'm sure, some of those regulations were tossed under that bus.

President Obama abruptly pulled back proposed new national smog standards Friday morning, overruling the Environmental Protection AgencyÂ’s efforts to compel states and communities nationwide to reduce local air pollution in the coming years or face federal penalties.

The move represented a win for the business community, which had lobbied to postpone new restrictions on ground-level ozone—known as smog—until 2013 in light of the current economic downturn.

In a statement, Obama praised EPA administrator Lisa P. JacksonÂ’s effort to improve the nationÂ’s air quality, but said he had asked her to withdraw the draft standards since they were scheduled to be reconsidered two years from now anyway.

I'm sure Obama's liberal base will just love that.

Boehner isn't letting up. Reacting to today's job news, he went on the offensive against Obama's "triple threat" to the economy.

Boehner said private-sector job growth “continues to be undermined by the triple threat of higher taxes, more failed ‘stimulus’ spending and excessive federal regulations."

“Together, these Washington policies have created a fog of uncertainty that’s left small businesses unable to hire and American families worried about the future,” Boehner said.

...

BoehnerÂ’s statement was markedly different in tone from that of Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who suggested that there might be room for compromise between the administration and House Republicans.

Noting that Obama will “finally unveil his latest jobs plan” next week, Cantor said he believed there would be areas where Republicans and the White House could “work together to produce real results that will help job creators get people back to work.”

Expect liberals to go nuts over this stuff. They'll see it as giving in to Boehner and the GOP who will only be emboldened to demand more. And they'll be right. Obama's promised his TRILLION plus dollar, so-called "stimulus" would have unemployment under 7% by now and that without it we'd be at 8%. Well, we got it and unemployment is over 9% and the White House itself says it's going to be there for the next year at least. By their own lights, Obama's approach has made things worse, so you're damn right the GOP is going to try and move him, kicking and screaming if need be, to policies that will not only improve the GOP's electoral chances but improve the nation's economy. As the old saying goes, you can do well while doing good.

Thanks to David Hauptmann for the EPA story tip.

Mitch McConnell wants in on this and comes off the top rope with some quality snark.

This action alone will prevent more job losses than any speech the President has given

Heh.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:17 AM | Comments (263)
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VerumSerum sets this story up nicely. First there's video of Obama bragging on his terrific investment of taxpayer money in this shovel-ready tax-dodge...

Every day that you build this expanded facility, as you fill orders for solar panels to ship around the world youÂ’re demonstrating that the promise of clean energy isnÂ’t just an article of faith, not anymore. ItÂ’s not some abstract possibility for science fiction movies or a distant future, 10 years down the road or 20 years down the road. ItÂ’s happening right now. The future is here.

The future is in Chapter 11, Champ.

And then there's this chart comparing the interest rates Solyndra paid the government, for loans secured from the Treasury's private bank, the Federal Financing Bank.

John from VerumSerum explains further:

Congress requested documents related to the Solyndra loan from the Office of Management and Budget. After three months and zero documents produced, a hearing was scheduled. An OMB deputy director was asked to attend but didnÂ’t show up, claiming a scheduling conflict. Finally, OMB allowed that congressional staff could view some of the requested documents on site, but when they arrived in mid-July not all the documents were available and some that were made available had been redacted. Specifically, the information on risk ratings had been lined out. Given that this was exactly the information congress had been looking for the entire exercise was becoming a waste of time. At this point the committee held a hearing to consider issuing a subpoena for the documents.

Why would Solyndra get such sweet interest rates for what is obviously now -- and also was obviously then -- a high-risk investment? Well, maybe because one of its "prime financial backers" was an Obama 2008 fundraiser.

The House Energy Committee wants some answers about all of this.

In a letter to the White House, committee Chairman Fred Upton and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns requested a scheduled briefing on the matter by no later than September 12 and asked for all documents related to the loan guarantee between Solyndra and the White House.

...

“We have learned from our investigation that White House officials monitored Solyndra’s application, and communicated with DOE and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) officials during the course of their review in 2009 and when those officials were restructuring the Solyndra deal this year,” Upton and Stearns wrote. “Documents received by the Committee also show that DOE and OMB officials were aware of the White House’s interest in the Solyndra loan guarantee. In addition, we are also aware that a major investor in Solyndra, George Kaiser, was a bundler for President Obama’s 2008 campaign.”

Solyndra was the beneficiary of over a half billion dollars in guaranteed federal loans, almost all of which money is now presumably lost.

Half a billion dollars.

You know what's scary?

There was a time when this would have been considered a major White House financial scandal.

Now?

Just a half billion dollars. Why make a fuss?

Posted by: Ace at 06:29 AM | Comments (231)
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Sipsey Street Irregulars has excerpts and further details and context, and the CBS story is hair-raising in itself.

Congressional investigators tell CBS News there's evidence the U.S. Attorney's office in Arizona sought to cover up a link between their controversial gunwalking operation known as "Fast and Furious" and the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

...

In a letter, Grassley and Issa say the lead prosecutor on Fast and Furious, Assistant US Attorney Emory Hurley, learned almost immediately that guns allowed onto the street in his case, had been recovered at Terry's murder. "(I)n the hours after Agent Terry's death," says the letter from Grassley and Issa, Hurley apparently "contemplated the connection between the two cases and sought to prevent the connection from being disclosed." The Justice Department recently transferred Hurley out of the criminal division into the civil division.

An internal ATF email dated the day after Terry's death reveals the quick decision to not disclose the source of the weapons found at the murder scene: "... this way we do not divulge our current case (Fast and Furious) or the Border Patrol shooting case."

Another ATF email indicates that the justification both offices used to not charge the suspect with crimes related to the murder scene "was to not 'complicate' the FBI's investigation."

Posted by: Ace at 05:51 AM | Comments (178)
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The Wall Street Journal says the expectation was for 70,000 jobs to be created. Missed it by that much Chief.

But, but he said he was going to give a speech!

More here.

I just saw a guy on CNBC say the ZERO (ZERO!) net job creation is the first time since 1945 that the government has reported no jobs created in a month. Unprecedented!

Also...June and July job creation numbers revised downward. So what happens when this August report is UNEXPECTEDLY revised down next month?

Liberals are fond of pointing out that Reagan was in bad shape around this time of his term so Obama can still pull it out. Well, as we know Reagan had laid the foundation for a roaring economic comeback. Clearly what Obama has done and failed to do has laid the foundation for a double-dip recession.

Posted by: DrewM at 04:46 AM | Comments (263)
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Randy M asked me if IÂ’d be willing to do an economics post on debt. IÂ’m certainly willing to do so, but RandyÂ’s request got me wondering what else the Moron Nation would like to know about economics terms or concepts. IÂ’m not the greatest expert in the world on this stuff, but given that Teh Krugman has a Nobel Prize in Economics and heÂ’s a complete dunderhead, I feel confident that I can answer some of the questions you might haveÂ…and in a AoS Moron-friendly way.

IÂ’ve been doing DOOM/economics posts for a long while now, and like many financial news sites and blogs I just assume that everyone knows the terminology and concepts I use. But that may not be the case for everyone, so I think it would be fun to just have you guys give me some topics youÂ’d like me to discuss. I think Randy is right that credit and debt (which involves banking) would be a good topic, but surely there are others.

I’ve already written three “Economics at AoSHQ U” posts, which can be found here:

Economics at AoSHQ U: Part 1 - The Economy

Economics at AoSHQ U: Part 2 - Money

Economics at AoSHQ U: Part 3 - Illiquidity vs Insolvency

What else would you like to know?

NOTE: I don't give out financial advice. I'm not a financial adviser or broker or anything. I'm just a random Internet Person with a little knowledge about basic principles of economics. In most ways that count, I'm no smarter than any of you guys (in fact, probably much less so). If you're looking for pointers on where to invest your money, you'd do best to seek out a good financial advisor or banker to give you a hand. There are still lots of good folks working in banks; don't let the news fool you into thinking that all of them are greedy, amoral bastards. Most of them aren't. I can explain general concepts and financial ideas, but I won't offer specific advice.

Posted by: Monty at 04:11 AM | Comments (185)
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Happy Friday before Labor Day weekend, morons.

Not without irony, jobs (or lack thereof) data will be released at 8:30am Eastern today.

To set the stage for "unexpectedly", consensus is 75,000 non-farm payroll adds and U-3 unemployment steady at 9.1%. Dow futures indicate we'll open about 100 points down.

Also just in to the AoSHQ News Desk, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake was just reported in the Aleutian Islands. Rumors that it was caused by Palin jumping into the race are unconfirmed at this time.

Update: Happy birthday to Dave in Texas.

Update 2: Boom! Zero jobs created in August. Headline unemployment remains 9.1%. July employment revised down by 32K jobs to 85K. Unexpectedly!!11!

Posted by: andy at 03:11 AM | Comments (114)
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A Requiem for California
On its way to being the most perfected yet bankrupt and unlivable state in the nation.

CA Legislature Passes The Dream Act
Now illegal aliens get in-state tuition and financial aid.

Because California state government has so much money that legislators hardly know what to do with it all, state senators passed a bill today to give financial aid to illegal immigrants who are college students. Plenty of U.S. citizens are short financial aid — never mind our eternal budget crisis — but apparently lawmakers still think we have $40 million available to hand over to non-citizens.

Under AB 889, household “employers” (aka “parents”) who hire a babysitter on a Friday night will be legally obligated to pay at least minimum wage to any sitter over the age of 18 (unless it is a family member), provide a substitute caregiver every two hours to cover rest and meal breaks, in addition to workers’ compensation coverage, overtime pay, and a meticulously calculated timecard/paycheck.

Senate Bill 432, which requires hotels to use fitted sheets and provide housekeepers with long-handled mops, just passed the state Senate on the coattails of support from hotel workers union Unite Here and is set to go to the stateÂ’s House soon.

The bill by Democratic state Sen. Alan Lowenthal, would prohibit restaurants, grocery stores and other vendors from dispensing food in expanded polystyrene containers, commonly known as Styrofoam, beginning in 2016. If signed into law, the measure would make California the first to institute a statewide ban on such containers. More than 50 California cities and counties already have similar bans.

A Final Word from VDH: Strangers in a Familiar Land

California sits in a time warp. Despite tax hikes that make our roughly 10% income tax and 10% sales tax among the highest in the nation, there is little to show for it during the last forty years.

...A contemporary culture that cannot finish a forty-year-old planned three-lane freeway from Sacramento to Bakersfield has no business borrowing tens of billions to attempt a new high-speed rail corridor. It is characteristic of our present generation to dream and talk wildly of the non-essential as penance for neglecting the very doable and necessary. ...An entire generation that had once defined itself in opposition to “them” has problems when “them” are mostly buried.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:53 PM | Comments (890)
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