6pm Eastern - Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan are participating.

Link here.

Update: Livestream embedded below the fold - use the link above if it doesn't work. more...

Posted by: andy at 01:50 PM | Comments (61)
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Wow, what a shock.

Green initiative?

Doug Edwards, formerly an executive with Google. And now, as he says, retired, by choice.

Guy seems to be willing to pay a lot of money to get his taxes raised.

$10k to the Ohio Demo Partry in 2010


$7.5k to John Kerry in 2004


$500 to the DNC Services Corp in 2004


$2.3k to Michael Arcuri in 2007


$2.1k to Bob Casey in 2006


$250 to Hillary Clinton in 2007


$1k to John Courage in 2006


$5k to the DCCC in 2006


$700 to Kay Hagan in 2008


$1k to Ron Klein in 2006


$2,300 to Harry Mitchell in 2007


$1k to Joe Sestak in 2006


$2.3k to John Yarmouth in 2007


$2k to the Franken Recount fund in 2008


$2.3k to Timothy Walz in 2007


$30k to to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2010!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


$2.4k to Betty Sutton for Congress in 2010


$1k to Bill Foster for Congress in 2010

As a general matter, he gives the federal limit ($2300 or $2400) to a lot of Democratic candidates.

Here's a screencap of the donor information for "Edwards, Douglas." You have to skip some of these entries because it's not the same Doug Edwards (e.g., he's not an attorney and not likely to donate to some kind of lobbying group for convenience stores).

One odd thing is that he's only given $500 (five hundred) to Obama himself.

I sort of think these records might be incomplete. I can't see this guy showering $2300 on every Patrick Murphy or Tammy Duckworth and then only giving Obama $500.

You can look it up here.

Thanks to "Northern California."

More: Doug Edwards, as listed on Open Secrets.

Look at that blizzard of absolute-federal-maxed-out donations. Note he gave $30,000 (thirty thousand) each to the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

That's a lot of money to drop in a single year.

Thanks to JohnE.

Posted by: Ace at 01:05 PM | Comments (171)
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I don't know.

Former New Jersey governor Tom Kean, who has known Chris Christie since he was a teenager and remains an informal adviser, tells National Review Online that the governor is “very seriously” considering a presidential bid.

“It’s real,” Kean says. “He’s giving it a lot of thought. I think the odds are a lot better now than they were a couple weeks ago.”

Christie remains undecided, Kean says, but is listening closely to pleas from party leaders.

My problem with this is that Christie's aides are very firm in their "nos."

When Perry's people were saying "no, not yet," they were doing so in a way that did allow for the possibility of a change in position. They would say "Nothing has changed in the governor's thinking," or that sort of thing. They reiterated the old answer -- "No" -- without adding new authority to it.

But Christie's aides do seem to be investing that "no" with fresh authority. One of his aides made a point of saying Christie means what he says and says what he means -- in other words, it would be immoral and dishonest for him to reverse his opinion.

Thus escalating the "No" beyond what is necessary.

Sorry to drop another "Christie May Run" post. I expect pretty much this topic is exhausted, comment-wise. But it is big news.

Or big rumor.

Thanks to lu and "Jewish Janitor."

Posted by: Ace at 12:22 PM | Comments (243)
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Emphasizing that taxpayers paid to arm a murderous Mexican drug cartel.

It's a good starter article on the subject, too. Someone who hasn't paid attention so far might be a bit startled by this one-paragraph opening digest:

Not only did U.S. officials approve, allow and assist in the sale of more than 2,000 guns to the Sinaloa cartel -- the federal government used taxpayer money to buy semi-automatic weapons, sold them to criminals and then watched as the guns disappeared.

This story really has not had anything like the media coverage it ought to have.

That shocking one-paragraph opener might change that.

How negligent was the government? So negligent it's not even negligence at all.

According to documents obtained by Fox News, Agent John Dodson was ordered to buy six semi-automatic Draco pistols -- two of those were purchased at the Lone Wolf gun store in Peoria, Ariz. An unusual sale, Dodson was sent to the store with a letter of approval from David Voth, an ATF group supervisor.

Dodson then sold the weapons to known illegal buyers, while fellow agents watched from their cars nearby.

This was not a "buy-bust" or a sting operation, where police sell to a buyer and then arrest them immediately afterward. In this case, agents were "ordered" to let the sale go through and follow the weapons to a stash house.

According to sources directly involved in the case, Dodson felt strongly that the weapons should not be abandoned and the stash house should remain under 24-hour surveillance. However, Voth disagreed and ordered the surveillance team to return to the office. Dodson refused, and for six days in the desert heat kept the house under watch, defying direct orders from Voth.

A week later, a second vehicle showed up to transfer the weapons. Dodson called for an interdiction team to move in, make the arrest and seize the weapons. Voth refused and the guns disappeared with no surveillance.

According to a story posted Sunday on a website dedicated to covering Fast and Furious, Voth gave Dodson the assignment to "dirty him up," since Dodson had become the most vocal critic of the operation.

Apparently James Dodson opposed the policy and the operation, so they... "dirtied him up" with it, to keep him quiet. (It didn't work.)

That FoxNews story, by the way, is substantially based on an exclusive from Sipsey Street Irregulars, who had the story first and, apparently, correct and confirmed.

Thanks to Scott J.

Posted by: Ace at 11:32 AM | Comments (271)
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"The guy in the glasses, in the back. Why not?"

Oh that's like totally not staged or planted.

Question: How on earth did rich people who had a yearning to help people with money cope in the past?

Oh that's right, they set up their own private charitable trusts or donated to causes they considered worthy.

The problem with that? It takes work. Hell, you might have to speak with a lawyer for two or three hours to set up a trust. Might even cost you $30000.

Or, if you just want to donate to someone else's charity-- oh my God, you might have to look up a phone number on Google.

So now the wealthy members of the Democratic coalition have decided that they'd rather have the government take all this hardship off their shoulders and just take large amounts of their money to spend as the government sees fit.

Because the government makes awesome decisions when it's spending other people's money.

Posted by: Ace at 11:16 AM | Comments (156)
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In other words, it holds fourteen silver dimes (fingers crossed).

Only one man survived the sinking of the ship by U-boats.

SS Gairsoppa settled upright on the seabed with its cargo holds open, which means remote-controlled robotic submarines should be able to retrieve the bullion.

Work would begin in the second quarter of 2012, [the salvage company] said.

The seven million ounces of silver on the ship is a mixture of privately owned bullion insured by the UK government and state-owned coins and ingots.

...

Odyssey president Mark Gordon said one set of documents suggested the silver bars may contain 2.5% gold as well, which he described as "an added bonus". Ron Paul described it as "boner fuel."

I added that last part in.

Posted by: Ace at 10:16 AM | Comments (149)
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From Zero Hedge:

Two weeks ago, the media's heart went aflutter when it learned that the president had borrowed a page right out of ole' Joe McCarthy's communist witch hunt book with the launch of Attack Watch. The response by everyone, even fans of Obama, was immediate and brutal. . . . [The Federal Reserve,] in a Request for Proposals filed to companies that are Fed vendors, is requesting the creation of a "Social Listening Platform" whose function is to "gather data from various social media outlets and news sources." It will "monitor billions of conversations and generate text analytics based on predefined criteria." The Fed's desired product should be able to "determine the sentiment . . . of a speaker or writer with respect to some topic or document"... "The solution must be able to gather data from the primary social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Forums and YouTube. It should also be able to aggregate data from various media outlets such as: CNN, WSJ, Factiva etc." Most importantly, the "Listening Platform" should be able to "Handle crisis situations, Continuously monitor conversations, and Identify and reach out to key bloggers and influencers." Said otherwise, the Fed has just entered the counterespionage era and will be monitoring everything written about it anywhere in the world.

Is this the best use of our tax dollars? How, exactly, does monitoring everything everyone says about the Federal Reserve benefit the taxpayer? I understand they're trying to gauge consumer sentiment, but reaching out to key bloggers and influencers? Why? I don't think propaganda is within the Fed's purview. Just make your measured statements, twiddle your monetary knobs and go away.

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Posted by: rdbrewer at 10:05 AM | Comments (80)
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Greece will probably default. According to SkyNews, the G20 is preparing for a default in October.

At Hot Air's Green Room, J.E. Dyer goes looking for lessons amid the wreckage.

Today, America and Europe are drifting on a sea of resources idled artificially by government policy. To begin with, we have a combined population that is less well-educated than its ancestors. That is a huge idled resource. The same population operates increasingly on a mental attitude of entitlement and resentment, and that idles it further. Both of these conditions were created by the implementation of the European idea in the public schools. Our people – the ones walking around right now – would be much more productive without these handicaps.

To me, this is the most important idled resource, but it cannot be unleashed without removing the clamps of regulation and taxation. Regulation has taken the place of taxation as the worst imposition on our daily economic life. It is a silent, mostly invisible killer. I would like to see the American capital gains tax rolled back, but itÂ’s not our capital gains tax that is destroying our economy, itÂ’s regulation.

Don’t forget the words idled resources. I’m not talking here solely about capital available for investment, although I’m talking about that too. I’m talking about how much more you could accomplish, and how much more you could save and buy (with cash), if the government didn’t keep driving up your basic costs (and, indeed, the cost of everything else) with regulation, while diverting 30-60% of what you’re worth to your employer in the form of taxes, mandated benefits, and “social investment.”

Posted by: Ace at 09:44 AM | Comments (120)
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Just when you thought "This couldn't get any cronier.

Out of the hundreds of out-of-work employees, vendors, investors and other creditors in the bankruptcy of government-backed solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC, one name stands out: the California Democratic Party.

Why California Democrats would be creditor to a company that received more than a half-billion dollars in federal loans to build a solar-panel plant isnÂ’t clear. Even party officials say theyÂ’re not sure.

The California Democratic Party’s communications director, Tenoch Flores, said the organization was not owed “any funds in any form” by the California-based company. He said he was unclear why the party would be listed as a creditor in Solyndra’s bankruptcy filing.

Meanwhile (also taken from Verum Serum), the DoE did not disclose that it had been massively lobbied by Solyndra.

Under a policy first issued by the White House in 2009, federal agencies were required to disclose lobbying for stimulus funds. McBee Strategic Consulting, a lobby firm then under contract with Solyndra, said it had contacted the Energy Department in the first and third quarters of 2009 regarding the Recovery Act, according to records filed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA).

Yet a review by The Hill of the more than 40 lobbyist contact disclosure forms regarding the stimulus posted online by the Energy Department reveals no contact between the department and Solyndra's lobbyists.

Posted by: Ace at 09:01 AM | Comments (73)
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But Carbon Credits Eliminate The Wait!

A followup to Andy's sidebar headline from this weekend.

Arson and murder, brought to you by environmentalism. Which now resembles a stereotypically nasty form of corporate imperialism. This is a NYT link, just so you know.

KICUCULA, Uganda — According to the company’s proposal to join a United Nations clean-air program, the settlers living in this area left in a “peaceful” and “voluntary” manner.

People here remember it quite differently.

“I heard people being beaten, so I ran outside,” said Emmanuel Cyicyima, 33. “The houses were being burnt down.”

Other villagers described gun-toting soldiers and an 8-year-old child burning to death when his home was set ablaze by security officers.

Yikes! How awful! What on Earth for?

Across Africa, some of the worldÂ’s poorest people have been thrown off land to make way for foreign investors, often uprooting local farmers so that food can be grown on a commercial scale and shipped to richer countries overseas.

But in this case, the government and the company said the settlers were illegal and evicted for a good cause: to protect the environment and help fight global warming.

They're planting trees for the carbon credits market. Well then, all's well that ends well! I'm sure that 8 year old child burning to death in his home was a worthy sacrifice to Gaia the multi-billionaires who are still trying to make money off their feculent carbon credits scheme.

It's a revealing conceit too, that growing food is considered less of a "good" cause for uprooting people than growing trees for absorbing carbon.

Feh. People. Bleh. Why grow food for them? If you keep feeding them, they'll only keep eating!

Pine and Eucalyptus. That's what they are planting, by the way. Isn't that nice?
What?

Maathai said apart from the negative impact on water systems, the eucalyptus, which is called the water drinker or guzzler in her native Kikuyu, is also hostile to other species and almost the entire local biodiversity.

“When you go into these monoculture plantations, they look like dead forests because it’s only them,” she said. “You don’t see birds, butterflies, other trees, animals—anything other than them because they don’t allow any other growth.”

In MaathaiÂ’s country, Kenya, eucalyptus planting is already being restricted. The countryÂ’s Environment minister, John Michuki, three months ago ordered the uprooting of eucalyptus trees from wetlands and banned their planting along rivers and watershed. He said the species was a threat to the environment especially in water catchment areas.

So. These...environmentalists, for lack of a word denoting lower intelligence, are planting non-native invasive species as carbon sinks. A species that parches the land and squashes the native biodiversity (in researching this post, I learned over and over again that virtually nothing else will live among imported eucalyptus forests).
A species so loaded with flighty oils, that the conditions for fire cause it to literally explode and form enormous, spreading conflagrations.

Well, look on the bright side; they're not planting food. PHEW.

Because of 'environmentalists' here in the good ol' US, I'm not allowed to put a potted plant too close to the water in my yard for fear of making the skunk cabbage taste a little 'off' to the muskrats downswamp; but the ideological confreres of these same motherf*ckers can go to Africa and murder people for land and rape Gaia with a flaming torch.

And get this: this is all happening because someone with more money than brains is paying these folks to IMPROVE THE ENVIRONMENT ON HIS BEHALF. Because he feels guilty about his carbon footprint.

Well done, pal. Look what your money bought. Hey, you know what makes me feel better when I'm feeling guilty? Doing more of what made me feel guilty in the first place. Go on, enjoy yourself. Trust me, it makes not one iota of difference to your imaginary carbon accountant. And nobody's house has to burn down with the baby inside.

Environmentalism! Is there anything it won't do to you?
Thanks again to Andy.

Posted by: LauraW at 08:41 AM | Comments (150)
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