Politizoid - Hot Air Express

All purveyors of hot air beware! The Truth Elves are on the loose!

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Jeannie DeAngelis - The Obama Bankruptcy Curse Strikes Again

Originally posted at American Thinker

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If an establishment is endowed with enough history to be able to hang a plaque on the wall that says “George Washington Slept Here,” that business usually grows. With Barack Obama, it’s the exact opposite. That’s why when Obama visits or supports a business, the plaque should read “Because of Barack Obama the business you didn’t build will soon be out of business.”

If Obama backs a solar energy company it is almost certain that a shutdown is in the offing. To date, approximately 34 Obama-backed green energy companies have gone bankrupt, the most well-known being Solyndra. With the help of a highly Obama-touted half-billion dollar federal loan guarantee, Solyndra expanded their solar panel operations and created 158 jobs. Then, 15 months later the company filed Chapter 11 and laid off 1,100 employees.

The Obama curse is not limited to green energy companies. In 2009 the President visited Cardinal Fasteners in Bedford Heights, Ohio, and by 2011 the bolt-maker was in Chapter 11 and was forced to suspend operations.

From the looks of things, in 2009 Barack really spread the bankrupting joy around. To promote his economic stimulus plan the president toured Allentown Metal Works, a 100-year-old Pennsylvania metal fabrication company that specialized in making heavy-duty steel components for bridges and power plants as well as for the cement and mining industries. The Lehigh Valley manufacturer didn’t get a 15-month or two-year reprieve; by 2010 the plant’s gate was padlocked.

And yet again in 2009, as part of his business-busting/pro-stimulus bill marathon Barack bulldozed his way into the heavy machinery manufacturer Caterpillar in Peoria, Illinois. After the President’s visit Caterpillar notified an additional 2,454 workers that they were “losing their jobs as the company continues to try to bring production in line with plummeting demand…The bulk of the job cuts – nearly 1,600 in all – [were] in Illinois at the company’s plants in East Peoria.”

Most would likely agree that it’s one thing when manufacturers of solar panels, steel components, and bulldozers get the deathblow, but when the Obama whammy starts hitting eateries, no one is safe. And I mean no one.

Last year while on the road campaigning in Ohio, while passing through Akron, Obama stopped for breakfast. The president ate two eggs over easy, bacon and wheat toast, hugged the owner Josephine “Anne” Harris, took a couple of courtesy photos, and left. Two hours later, the 70-year-old owner of Ann’s Place succumbed to natural causes and went home to be with the Lord.

In June of 2010, while down by the Gulf of Mexico eating snow cones and inspecting tar balls after the BP spill, Obama graced Camardelle’s Seafood with his esteemed presence.

At the time, Barack was on a mission to save the Gulf restaurant industry by proving the seafood was safe to eat. He proved it by scarfing down enough shrimp and crawfish at Camardelle’s to choke a Louisiana catfish. After he made his point, the following month the Grand Isle restaurant was forced to put up a “Closed” sign.

Then there was the New Chef’s Restaurant in Toledo, Ohio. Obama cited the 70-year-old establishment as an “indirect beneficiary of the government’s Chrysler bailout.” Obama, who has always been a stickler for pronouncing names correctly (like ‘Navy Corpse-man Christian [sic] Brossard’), praised workers at a nearby Chrysler Wrangler plant, saying, “And this plant indirectly supports hundreds of other jobs right here in Toledo. After all, without you, who’d eat at Chet’s or Inky’s or Rudy’s?”

A week after being mentioned in that speech, Chet’s…sorry, Chef’s Restaurant, after feeding the local community for almost three-quarters of a century, boarded up the windows, locked the front door, and walked away.

Now we come to find out that the owners of Washington DC’s Ray’s Hell Burger, Nice and Greasy Steak and Cheesy, and Ray’s Hell Burger Too are also closing up shop after failing to pay the rent.

Ray’s Hell Burger is home to the Soul Burger Number One, the Fat Joe, and the BIG Poppa.

Ray’s is where number one soul man, ultimate Big Poppa Barack Obama and his zany sidekick Phat Joe Biden used to dine together on occasion. When Barry was looking for a very special place to take Russian dignitary President Dmitry Medvedev, Ray’s Hell Burger was the place to go.

Obama ate juicy burgers at Ray’s and now the celebrated landmark has been served an eviction notice for being $39,000 in arrears for rent and damages. Tragedies like this illustrate that while “George Washington slept here” is a sure-fire way to make money, “Barack Obama dripped grease and mustard on this wooden top table” just isn’t enough history to keep the doors open or the rent paid.

Nonetheless, either way, businesses all across America continue to prove the President’s controversial campaign contention that “If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.”

But if that’s true, then it must also be true that if, through no fault of your own, you no longer have a successful business that you didn’t build, “you didn’t get there on your own…somebody along the line gave you some help.” And that somebody would be Barack Obama.

Jeannie DeAngelis

Jeannie DeAngelis writes almost exclusively for American Thinker and has been published on the conservative website Pajamas Media, as well as hosting a blog. See Jeannie's Blog

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American Crossroads - Public Equity

President Obama is playing Wall Street games with our money.

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Lurita Doan - Obama is the World’s Worst Investor

Barack Obama recently campaigned in Ohio about the importance of his policies, solar energy efforts. Solyndra, endorsed enthusiastically by Department of Energy and the president, declared bankruptcy less than 12 months after receiving Obama’s “investment” of $534 million dollars. Unfortunately, Solyndra was not Obama’s only poorly performing solar energy investment. Obama has, so far, lost over 2 billion dollars in poorly performing solar companies that, soon after huge infusions of taxpayer dollars, filed for bankruptcy protection.

Consider Obama’s investment in “green jobs”. After three and a half years and almost one hundred billion dollars of “investments”, Obama’s programs have been able to create only a few thousand jobs, certainly not the 5 million “green jobs” originally promised by the president. And, many of those few thousand jobs created are actually existing government jobs that have been re-categorized by Team Obama.

Consider Obama’s investment in “shovel ready” projects, which he promised would reduce unemployment dramatically and revitalize the engine of our economy. The only problem was that Team Obama didn’t understand their own government regulations, and they allowed themselves to be “snookered” into allocating Stimulus infrastructure funds for pet projects such as the San Francisco Harvest Marsh Mouse research. Two years later, the president admitted that perhaps he did not understand what it took to make a project shovel ready. Obama seemed to think it was a joke, but it turned out to be yet another bad investment for the American taxpayer. Unfortunately, the president’s $787 million dollar “investment” was lost—and the American taxpayer was, once again, left holding the empty bag.

Investment advisors in the private sector also are evaluated on the investments they passed on. For example, some of the investments that Obama decided to pass on were investments in the Keystone pipeline and additional nuclear energy plants, denying our nation energy independence and preventing hundreds of thousands of new jobs from being created.

Any way that Americans look at it, Obama’s record as an investor is appalling. He has blown through trillions of dollars of taxpayer money, added another 5 trillion dollars of debt and has little to show for all the spending. Time and again, his touted investments have gone bust, and never has he been able to achieve the returns he has promised. Curiously, despite these poor returns, the president continues to campaign on the promise of making even more “investments” for the American people.

In the private sector, when an investment advisor performs as poorly as Obama has, investors take their money and go elsewhere. Perhaps, in November, American voters need to follow that same example.

Let’s remember, too, that most investment prospectuses post a warning: “past performance does not guarantee future results”, but in Obama’s case, maybe it does.

Lurita Doan

Lurita Alexis Doan is an African American conservative commentator who writes about issues affecting the federal government.

Lurita has been involved in the business community through participation in many trade associations, membership in business organizations including the Young Entrepreneurs' Organization (now Entrepreneurs' Organization) and Young Presidents' Organization, and involvement on charitable community activities.

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How Solyndra Spent Your Money

Green company's $733 million plant featured whistling robots, spa showers

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Michelle Malkin - White House Bullying Business?

"Spin, baby, spin. Throughout his frenetic jobs tour across the West this week, President Obama tried to seize the narrative. Republicans, he told champagne-sipping, tea party-trashing Hollywood moguls and tech titans, are intolerant bigots, know-nothings and thugs. They've made his hair "grayer" and left him "all dinged up."
But who's battering whom? Since Day One, Obama has been the Chicago bully in victim's clothing. The mask is wearing thin."
Michelle Malkin

September 28, 2011

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Rhonda - Artificial Stimulus produced an Artificial Recovery

As the old song goes, “Ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby!” My children agree with this axiom wholeheartedly. Since they were born, they have ingested relatively few things that were made from artificial ingredients. My son seemed to throw up every time he had anything that contained red dye, so we became acutely aware of the list of ingredients on everything. It was surprising to realize that almost every juice, popsicle, cereal, and yogurt, even exorbitantly priced “organic” ones, contained the pervasive red dye. My daughter began to dislike the bitter taste of the dye and, with her sensitive sense of taste, can still detect its unexpected presence. Our family is not a crunchy, granola one and I don’t own even a single pair of Birkenstocks, but we do prefer real, wholesome ingredients in our food and treats, instead of the cloying taste of dyes and artificial preservatives.

Likewise, our economy has struggled along with stops and starts and fits and coughs as a result of a steady diet of artificial stimulus. The idea that throwing money into the economy in any haphazard manner cannot help but produce economic growth is producing an undeniable result. Tossing money at a weak idea that cannot endure the normal rigors of due diligence probes, like the infamous Solyndra stimulus funding of $535 million, produces nothing other than layoffs of workers and bankruptcy that has left the taxpayers twisting in the wind. However, the temptation of misleading American citizens into subsidizing even more bankrupt business plans has proved too great for the ”venture socialists” in the current administration.

The economic stimulus package of 2009 doled
out taxpayer dollars in the millions and billions to pet interests and pork programs of members of Congress. While much of the funding went to states to meet budget shortfalls, shore up pension funds, and extend unemployment benefits, the rest was rushed out without reasonable investigation or oversight. Solyndra is the embodiment of Conservatives’ worst fears about hurriedly spending almost one trillion dollars in the name of government stimulus or a massive experiment in Keynesian economics. Sadly, though, Solyndra is just the flavor of the moment and has plenty of company.

The list of failing companies that greedily disposed of millions in government stimulus funds, only to collapse after such gluttony, is growing.

Evergreen Solar, Inc. received $5.3 million in stimulus funds from the 2009 economic stimulus package. The company has declared bankruptcy now. They are joined by SpectraWatt which obtained a $500,000 Stimulus grant from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Another winner of stimulus who ultimately lost is Mountain Plaza Inc. Despite declaring bankruptcy in 2003, the company received $424,000 from the Tennessee Department of Transportation as part of a grant aimed at installing “truck stop electrification” systems that allow idling truckers to plug-in during extended stops and turn off their exhaust-belching, environment polluting diesel engines.

The company filed for bankruptcy again in 2010.

Elsewhere, Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Co. also failed despite Olsen’s Mills receiving $10 million to increase employment, add equipment and machinery, refinance existing debts and work capital for operations and acquire land. The payout — part of a $64 million package to nine rural businesses in Wisconsin for economic development loan assistance — was delivered in January 2010, after Olsen’s Mills filed for bankruptcy protection for defaulting on a $60 million bank loan.

While President Obama travels the country touting the success of the 2009 Stimulus and begs Americans to show their “love” for him by passing his second round of stimulus now, the jobs supposedly created by the government are vanishing faster than a Slush Puppie in the summertime.

The Obama administration promised that its $38.6 billion loan guarantee program to promote green jobs would create or save 65,000 jobs. Instead, only 3,545 have been created after investing about half of that total, according to the Energy Department.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee surmised:

My goodness. We should be reviewing every one of these loan guarantee projects.

Perhaps the loan guarantee business should not be undertaken by the Federal government at all. Perhaps capital investments should be provided by private investors who are experienced at risking their own capital in a cautious, calculated way after performing due diligence. Perhaps free markets should be free to operate without government interference and incompetence.

Peter Kohlstadt is a former Solyndra employee. His comments in an interview with Greta Van Susteren reveal some misconceptions about how businesses become successful and prosperous that are apparently commonplace.

VAN SUSTEREN: Were you there when President Obama visited?
KOHLSTADT: I wasn’t in the building. I was — at the time, I was in another building. But I saw the live video feed of it. So it was — it was — it was a proud moment, you know, to have the president, you know, visit your company. And you know, at that point, we thought, Wow, we’re — you know, I think we’re really going to make it, you know? You know, the president, you know, is kind of backing us, in a sense. And you know, you figure that, OK, you know, there may be some bumpy times, but, you know, ultimately, there was never a thought that they’d close their doors.

You know what? Whether or not your President, who received millions in campaign fundraising dollars from the green energy producers and promoters, endorses and infuses your company with taxpayer-backed loans, your economic success still depends on the conventional constraints of supply and demand. If China produces a greater supply of solar panels at a ridiculously low price at the same time that demand diminishes, your company will, you know, require a force greater than the frivolous endorsement of a, you know, Harvard Law professor to keep its doors open.

The falling price of traditional solar panels is likely the main cause of Solyndra’s bankruptcy.

The simple fact is that artificial stimulus packages or temporary government spending does not create jobs. The market conditions must be right for a business or service to be in demand. Only when the demands of the marketplace and the authentic market conditions indicate support for a new business enterprise can there be real success and prosperity.


The free market system cannot be artificially manipulated by the intervening hand of a meddling government. At best, such inorganic approaches produce temporary results that yield bitter fruits of failure in the long run. The last 3 1/2 years have produced a phony, government-engineered harvest infested with crony capitalism, bankruptcies, and layoffs.

Rhonda

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Rhonda is a stay home mom of two and was a teacher for ten years. She is a graduate of Clemson University and lives in Georgia. She is dedicated to the conservative, Constitutional principles that have made America a great country.
Visit Rhonda's Blog - One Conservative Voice

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President Still Touting Jobs Plan

Barack Obama's Economic Record.
1) First U.S. Debt Downgrade in American History.
2) Highest Level of Federal Spending since WWII (25% of GDP).
3) Highest Budget Deficit since WWII (10% of GDP).
4) Lowest level of Employment since 1983 (58.1% of Adults Working).

5) Highest Long Term Unemployment Rates since the 1930's (45.9% of Total Unemployed for Six Months or Longer).
6) Median Income Is At Its Lowest Level Since 1997.
7) Number Of People (over 16) Who Didn’t Work At All Last Year Increased To 86.7 Million.
8) Number Of Americans Living In Poverty (46.2 Million) the Highest Level On Record.
9) Child poverty rose from 20.7 percent in 2009 to 22 percent last year.
10) Economy added no jobs in August the first time since February, 1945.

Sep 17, 2011

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Doug Giles - Ma, Ma, Ma, My Solyndra

The community where I live is upgrading our Comcast cable services—which means that I won’t have Fox News on the third floor of my hacienda until they get out to my place and give me whatever fancy box I need.

I had no idea how addicted I had become to Fox. I now know what Charlie Sheen must feel like when he’s out of smokes and hookers. It’s rough. Being the pit bull that I am, I’ve been trying to plow on ‘til Comcast comes out by watching MSNBC and the local Miami news.

What I’ve found interesting during this forced Fox hiatus is that none of the stations at the particular times I’ve been watching are saying squat about the breaking $535 million Solyndra scandal which shamefully and directly points to Obama and Biden. Silencio conspicuoso, you know what I mean-o?

What you will hear these twits yodel about are the evil machinations of Rupert Murdoch (who allegedly had poor Sienna Miller’s smutty emails hacked), the dangerous arsenic levels in apple juice, or the possible cronyism behind Rick Perry’s HPV vaccine initiative. As they blather about Rick’s supposed dirty deed, I’m thinkin’, “Cronyism? You want to talk cronyism? Okay, let’s talk Solyndra.”

For those in my ‘hood who temporarily lost Fox during our cable upgrade—or for the poor saps who, for whatever reason, are not hip to the spectacle that is Solyndra—here’s the basic 411 on one of Obama’s half-billion dollar green stimulus babies.

• Solyndra is—oops, I mean was—a California solar energy company that scored a $535 million taxpayer-funded loan last year from BHO and his boys to save the earth via 1,100 tree humpers in lab coats cranking out solar panels.
• Prior to hitting the Obama loan lotto, both the President and Biden actually visited Solyndra and hyped it to us plebes as both sliced bread and Christmas for our flailing economy and our future as a super duper power.
• One year later (like, as in twelve months) after Solyndra had deposited the $535,000,000 check, the company mysteriously went tits up and declared Chapter 11. Oops!
• Now, the 1,100 workers that Solyndra employed are sitting on their couches eating ramen and watching The Price is Right on their solar paneled TVs while they fill out unemployment docs for more drachmas from China and our great grandchildren’s piggy banks.
• The coincidence in all this is that when folks started poking around and wondering how a company goes bust during just one season of American Idol after receiving more than half a billion dollars, they found that, lo and behold, the major shareholders and execs of Solyndra were Obama’s buddies who helped fund his ‘08 bid for the White House.
• One cat, George Kaiser, had even visited the White House 16 times in the last two years—which I believe is 14 more times than Biden has actually been there. What a coincidence that his business would get such a massive check for such a crappy company? Wow. What are the chances?
• Another interesting ditty is that the loan Kaiser finagled for Solyndra guaranteed George and his pals could recoup their losses in case Solyndra folded, but that the taxpayers would be screwed as far as any retrieval of their cash goes.
• And all this went down in the face of Solyndra showing five years of $500 million in losses with everybody and their dog screaming at the President not to support the company.

But somehow the aforementioned is not worth mentioning by various news outlets.

Here’s my guess as to why they don’t want to talk about Solyndra: It busts the fantastic fable they’re foisting on us on several different levels. Here are a couple myths it hammers:

• It shatters the Obama All-Wise Money Spender spell they’re trying to dazzle us with as they queue up to blow through another proposed half trillion dollars we don’t have.
• It also reeks not of “Hope & Change” but of Chicago-based BS cronyism at its finest.

Welcome, my friends, to the machine. We need some Woodwards and Bernsteins on this thing ASAP.

* Oh, BTW. Please watch The Daily Show’s,Jon Stewart slam dance Obama over Solyndra.

Doug Giles

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Doug Giles’ new book “If You're Going Through Hell, Keep Going!" is now available. Ann Coulter says "Doug Giles is a substantive and funny tour de force for traditional values.” Doug’s talk show and video blog can be seen and heard at www.ClashRadio.com.

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Related Post: Obama Administrations 'Green Scam'
Related Post: Michelle Malkin - Solyndra Scandal
Related Post: Solar Company Touted By Obama Goes Bust

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Obama Administrations 'Green Scam'

The Obama administration restructured a half-billion dollar federal loan to a troubled solar energy company in such a way that private investors — including a fundraiser for President Barack Obama — moved ahead of taxpayers for repayment in case of a default, government records show.

Charles Krauthammer on implications of Solyndra scandal on Obama administration
September 16, 2011


Byron York - The Stimulus Flop Hall of Fame
September 16, 2011

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Michelle Malkin - Solyndra Scandal

The Obama administration is moving to finalize as many as 15 loan guarantees for renewable energy companies before the stimulus program ends on Sept. 30, and Republicans are questioning whether that could lead to more failures like Solyndra Inc., a company that filed for bankruptcy and may leave taxpayers on the hook for a half-billion-dollar loan. Michelle Malkin says when it comes to Solyndra, “this is the tip of the green iceberg.”

In discussing the Solyndra scandal, Michelle Malkin says, “There are so many of these deals that need the same kind of scrutiny.” She goes on to talk about the green deals that need to be investigated.

September 15, 2011


September 15, 2011
What Were the Politics Behind the White House Deal With Solyndra?

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