Did Eric Holder Lie To Congress?
— andy

Operation Fast and Furious continues to simmer. Included in the weekend data dump, though, was something sure to heat it up.

New documents obtained by CBS News show Attorney General Eric Holder was sent briefings on the controversial Fast and Furious operation as far back as July 2010. That directly contradicts his statement to Congress.

On May 3, 2011, Holder told a Judiciary Committee hearing, "I'm not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks." (emphasis added)

Well, I mean that's an easy mistake to make. Ten months. A few weeks. What's the big diff?

I remain confident that this thing is going to break wide open and that some folks close to it will see some prison time. Personally, I'd just as soon send Holder to the Mexicans and let them put him up in the lavish accommodations that are the hallmark of their penal system.

Also on the F&F front, I should point out that Saturday's document dump post, while including that memorable PhotoShop of Michelle the gun mule, left out the one graphic that really explains this whole deal.

This chart, in the words of ATF agent Bill Newell, "reflect[s] the ultimate destination of firearms we intercepted and/or where the guns ended up."

It's fair to assume they didn't intercept the ones on the Mexican side of the border. So all those arrows show where they "ended up" ... most likely dropped at a crime scene.

What valid law enforcement purpose was behind this? I'm not as charitable as Ace on this - I think it's a full frontal assault on the second amendment.

Maybe the Mexicans can clear out a prison wing for the lot of these bozos.

More from Bob Owens.

Posted by: andy at 03:40 PM | Comments (228)
Post contains 312 words, total size 2 kb.

Are You Ready For The Next Solyndra?
— DrewM

But we're not done with the first one yet!

Meet Nevada Geothermal. You already know their main champion, Harry Reid.

A recent audit by Deloitte & Touche expressed “significant doubt” about Nevada Geothermal Power’s “ability to continue as a going concern.” The company’s vital signs are not looking good: it “has incurred net losses over the past several years, has an accumulated deficit of $44.0 million and an anticipated inability to retire its long-term liabilities,” the audit concluded.

Nevada Geothermal enjoyed significant backing from the federal government. It received a $79 million loan guarantee from the same Energy Department program that helped finance the failed solar company Solyndra. It also got $66 million in federal grants from the Treasury Department.

Reid was instrumental in securing that financing for Nevada Geothermal, the New York Times reported on Monday. “Mr. Reid has taken the nascent geothermal industry under his wing,” the Times noted, “pressuring the Department of Interior to move more quickly on applications to build clean energy projects on federally owned land and urging other member of Congress to expand federal tax incentives to help build geothermal plants, benefits that Nevada Geothermal has taken advantage of.”

Reid defends this kind of corrupt waste by saying if the federal government didn't invest in this type of high-risk speculative project no one would. Which is kind of the point. If the upside outweighed the risks then private investors would do it. Of course, there wouldn't be anything in it for politicians if they couldn't spread around your money to buy votes for themselves.

I think this "green" loan program is going to be a rich source of material for the GOP in the coming year.

Meanwhile back in the original scandal, top administration officials were warned that Obama shouldn't visit Solyndra's plant.

A Silicon Valley investor and senior administration officials warned the White House to reconsider having President Obama visit a solar start-up company because of its mounting financial problems, saying he might be embarrassed later.

“A number of us are concerned that the president is visiting Solyndra,” California investor and Obama fundraiser Steve Westly wrote to Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett in May 2010. “Many of us believe the companyÂ’s cost structure will make it difficult for them to survive long term. . . . I just want to help protect the president from anything that could result in negative or unfair press.”

Yes, so unfair that this corrupt deal is hurting Obama.

Obama himself says, meh no big deal.

“Now there are going to be some failures,” he said. “Hindsight is always 20/20,” the president added about being warned about Solyndra’s financial problems. “It went through the normal review process and people thought this was a good bet.”

Yeah, who could have seen this coming? Except for the Bush administration which rebuffed the company's efforts to get the money sooner and Obama's OMB which called the exact time of Solyndra's bankruptcy.

Posted by: DrewM at 12:18 PM | Comments (515)
Post contains 502 words, total size 4 kb.

Occupy Wall Street Crew Has Some Demands
— DrewM

And they are pretty much what you'd expect.

Demand one: Restoration of the living wage. This demand can only be met by ending "Freetrade" by re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market to level the playing field for domestic family farming and domestic manufacturing as most nations that are dumping cheap products onto the American market have radical wage and environmental regulation advantages. Another policy that must be instituted is raise the minimum wage to twenty dollars an hr.

Demand two: Institute a universal single payer healthcare system. To do this all private insurers must be banned from the healthcare market as their only effect on the health of patients is to take money away from doctors, nurses and hospitals preventing them from doing their jobs and hand that money to wall st. investors.

Demand three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment.

Demand four: Free college education.

Demand five: Begin a fast track process to bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while at the same bringing the alternative energy economy up to energy demand.

Demand six: One trillion dollars in infrastructure (Water, Sewer, Rail, Roads and Bridges and Electrical Grid) spending now.

Demand seven: One trillion dollars in ecological restoration planting forests, reestablishing wetlands and the natural flow of river systems and decommissioning of all of America's nuclear power plants.

Demand eight: Racial and gender equal rights amendment.

Basically they want to pass Smoot-HawleyII because that worked well last time, create trillions and trillions of new debt get paid for a job whether or not they do any work (I actually joked about this before I saw the list. Parody is dead). In general...repeal reality and destroy the economy.

I especially love the demand for an amendment demanding racial equality. Why didn't someone think of that sooner?

Demand list via Adam Baldwin.

BTW- These people are demanding jobs? If you're unemployed, how extensive is your job search if you have time to spend days at a time camping out in lower Manhattan?

I would love for someone from a Wall St firm or two come out and start passing out job applications just to see the reactions of the "protesters".

Amanda Carpenter notes that the "protesters" are looking for help in doing their laundry. An interest in hygiene is certainly a step forward in the world of hippies.

Posted by: DrewM at 11:23 AM | Comments (512)
Post contains 409 words, total size 3 kb.

Scientist Wins Nobel Prize in Medicine For Using Groundbreaking Method to Treat Himself for Cancer [JWF]
— Guest Blogger

At least the Nobel Prize folks actually awarded someone who accomplished something in his life. Used to be a time they'd give out peace prize awards to people with no accomplishments in life other than a dazzling ability to give speeches.

Unfortunately for Ralph Steinman, he died of cancer before they actually announced the award.

A scientist who won the Nobel prize for medicine on Monday used his own discoveries to treat himself for cancer, but died of the disease just days before he could be told of the award.

Calling it "bittersweet" news, colleagues of Canadian-born Ralph Steinman at New York's Rockefeller University said he had prolonged his own life with a new therapy based on his prize-winning research into the body's immune system.

But the 68-year-old physician, who joked last week with his family about hanging on until the annual prize announcement, died on Friday after a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

He never knew his life's work had been crowned with the highest accolade science can bestow.

Rules were set up in 1974 to prevent the committee from awarding the Nobel posthumously. A exception will be made in this case.

Since they're now making exceptions, perhaps they can rescind the award they gave the SCOAMF.

Follow me on Twitter or visit here.

Posted by: Guest Blogger at 10:40 AM | Comments (117)
Post contains 243 words, total size 2 kb.

Roseanne Barr Pines for Madame Guillotine and Re-education camps. [krakatoa]
— Guest Blogger

Honestly, this sounds too stupid to be truly what she thinks. Right? She's going Kaufman, yes?

Don't get me wrong -- I think that deep down, most people on the left aren't above a little "re-education" for the non-conformists. Hell, not even that deep down. They are willfully ignorant of their hypocrisy in the eternal fight against "the man".

But the guillotine for the rich? That's just too ironic to be a seriously held belief by anyone with half a brain, and I for one am certain that Roseanne has half a brain.

I'm trying to convince myself this must be some sort of attempt at comedy which in her case always seems to require the application of Hanlon's Razor, but I'm thrown off because she isn't grabbing her crotch. more...

Posted by: Guest Blogger at 09:43 AM | Comments (230)
Post contains 148 words, total size 1 kb.

Obama Max Donor Mark Ruffalo Joins Occupy Wall Street Protest, Declares We Need to Remove Money From Politics [JWF]
— Guest Blogger

Hollywood nitwit Mark Ruffalo left the safety of his Upper East Side domicile this past weekend to join up with the filthy hippies wandering aimlessly around Lower Manhattan and has made a heartfelt plea to stop beating up on the protesters by making fun of their appearance.

He obviously has no idea why any of us are paying attention: We need the laughs.

When people critique this movement and say spurious things about the protesters' clothes or their jobs or the general way they look, they are showing how shallow we have become as a nation. They forget that these people have taken time out of their lives to stand up for values that are purely American and in the interest of our democracy. They forget that these people are encamped in an urban park, where they are not allowed to have tents or other normal camping gear. They are living far outside their comfort zone to protect and celebrate liberty, equality and the rule of law.

It is a thing of beauty to see so many people in love with the ideal of democracy, so alive with its promise, so committed to its continuity in the face of crony capitalism and corporate rule. That should be celebrated. It should be respected and admired.

Crony capitalism, huh? Funny, but Ruffalo manages to avoid mentioning Solyndra. If that's not an example of greed and crony capitalism, then what is? Considering he declares we need to end our dependence on oil and find alternative energy sources, the Solyndra debacle seems tailor-made for a protest, no?

Jobs can and must be created. Family farms must be saved. The oil and gas industry must be divested of its political power and cheap, reliable alternative energy must be made available.

Yeah, well how's that been working out?

Ruffalo also recites a common refrain of the know-nothing protesters: That is to get money out of the political process. Well, maybe he should start leading by example. He says "we are the 99%," but I'm left wondering how many of the so-called 99% have so much disposable income that they can shower money on Barack Obama?

Ruffalo has a funny way of getting money out of politics since he managed to give $1,750 to the Obama for America campaign in 2008. Then obviously realizing he would max out his individual contribution limit, he gave another thousand to Obama, but made sure it went to the Obama Victory Fund immediately prior to the 2008 election.

So let's declare our solidarity with wealthy Hollywood actors and call for the removal of money from politics, especially those who donate the maximum to Democrats.

The 99% of us have paid a dear price so that 1% could become the wealthiest people in the world. We all pay insanely high energy prices while we see energy companies making record profits, year after year. We live with great injustices in the land of justice. We live with great lawlessness in the land of the law.

Indeed, we must end the lawlessness: Stop camping out on the streets of Manhattan, blocking traffic, shutting down bridges and being all-around nuisances.

Follow me on Twitter or visit here.

Posted by: Guest Blogger at 08:40 AM | Comments (319)
Post contains 562 words, total size 4 kb.

Borders Employees: "Good-bye, Cruel World!" [Moe Lane]
— Guest Blogger

Permit me to sum up this rather long, rather whiny, and left-unfinished* screed by they'll-be-grateful-later-that-they're-nameless Borders employees: "We totally deserved to have our book chain go belly-up, and with it our hopes for gainful employment any time soon." Not that the site that gave me the link to said screed wasn't kind of whiny, too. In fact, it was a whinefest all around, frankly. more...

Posted by: Guest Blogger at 07:11 AM | Comments (120)
Post contains 202 words, total size 1 kb.

If you believe that Wall Street is the Root of All Evil, I've got a Bridge to Sell You. [krakatoa]
— Guest Blogger

The Left doing what the Left does best: Marching to protest [fill this space with, literally, anything].

Artist's rendition of the Passion of a Leftist.

What do we want? Free unicorns!

Who do we want it from? Wall Street!

Apparently someone told them the unicorns could be found on the Brooklyn Bridge, and now the NY justice system has a new revenue stream.

I kid of course. At a great cost to NY taxpayers, these protesters will likely skate on all fines using the airtight defense of "social justice", a defense only available to roughly half the U.S. population, despite the best intentions of the Equal Protection Clause.

These are serious times. It is instructive that in these times the best the left can do is foment for violence, create economic uncertainty, and spend other people's money.

And by instructive, of course I mean axiomatic.

Posted by: Guest Blogger at 06:40 AM | Comments (132)
Post contains 178 words, total size 1 kb.

Buffett: "Higher taxes on the ultra-rich is not going to solve the deficit problem" [Sexton]
— Guest Blogger

According to the description provided by the person who uploaded the clip, Buffett said this at a lunch for Business Wire on Friday. That means it was just a few hours after the comments that caused such a kerfuffle over the Buffett Rule Friday morning:

more...

Posted by: Guest Blogger at 05:37 AM | Comments (116)
Post contains 312 words, total size 2 kb.

DOOM: You upset me, baby.
— Monty

In news that surprises absolutely nobody, Greece is set to miss the new deficit targets set by the EU. It won't matter; the bureaucrats will make threatening noises but will hand over the the bailout money anyway in return for more promises that will not be kept. That's how the Eurozone works.

North Dakota: America's answer to Saudi Arabia. Except in ND, you can have Bibles, women can drive, homosexuals aren't flogged in public (as far as I know), and the natives actually work for a living.

California: the nightmare scenario.

When journalists bust out the Shakespeare quotes, you can be sure that false profundity and labored metaphor will follow. And this is just precious:

Still, the consequences of a disorderly default are considered so dire that Athens has cards to play, too. A strike by workers at the national statistics bureau has made it difficult to get up-to-date fiscal data. The government has said it faces default by mid-October without the aid, but “we think they were exaggerating deliberately to put pressure on us,” a senior European official said.

Greece canÂ’t get accurate numbers on how boned they are together because the people who compile the numbers are on strike. Greece has taken being boned to a whole new level of cosmic absurdity.

Bring me the head of Quincy the Quant!

Ronald Reagan used to say that "a rising tide lifts all boats". Liberals never really got that, neither then nor now.

You know what the world needs? More government!

What globalization requires, therefore, are smart government policies. Governments should promote high-quality education, to ensure that young people are prepared to face global competition. They should raise productivity by building modern infrastructure and promoting science and technology. And governments should cooperate globally to regulate those parts of the economy – notably finance and the environment – in which problems in one country can spill over to other parts of the world.

In Sachs' world, "government" is like grey duct tape: it can fix anything. And for only 50% or so of your yearly income! It's an amazing value, really, if only you wingnuts would sit down and think about it.

Tom Friedman hates those damned job-stealing robots. (Oh, he says that now. But wait until we get sexy replicants like Pris in Blade Runner. I bet he'll be singing a different tune then.)

Does business "despair of" Barack Obama? Barack Obama is an academic leftist ideologue with no real private-sector background or experience. I'm not sure why so many businessmen expected anything else out of His Majesty but hostility and contempt. (Here's another link if you can't get to the FT article.)

The NYT wails that "foreclosures are killing us". It may be painful, but we must clear the enormous debt-overhang in the real estate sector. Too many people took on too much debt, and it must be cleared in one way or another if a recovery is to take place. You're not doing underwater homeowners (or the real-estate market in general) any favors if you force them to stay in houses they cannot afford.

The media's war against the Koch brothers is heating up going into the 2012 elections. One wonders where this kind of due-diligence was during Barack Obama's campaign in 2008.

Americans are re-learning the virtues of thrift and saving, but it's going to be a long, tough road back to sustainability. Household debt is still historically very high.

A looming trade-war with China? It's like no one ever read about the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act of 1930. Which is not to say that China is blameless; far from it. But they are simply behaving rationally according to their own priorities. We are the authors of our own misery in this case.

The latest number on public pension obligations? How does $30 Trillion dollars sound? Everybody out there who thinks all this money is actually going to be paid out, raise your hand.

UPDATE 1: The days of double-digit returns on financial assets may be over for a while. I think investors are going to have to learn to be satisfied with returns in the 5% range; an 8% return will be cause for celebration.
more...

Posted by: Monty at 05:04 AM | Comments (170)
Post contains 712 words, total size 7 kb.