Scottie Hughes - Crony Capitalism at Work

Ready for the next Solyndra? If you haven’t heard of GreenTech Automotive, that’s going to change. And fast.

The “green energy” company that boasts about building electric cars has recently been vaulted into the national spotlight because of its ties to top Clinton donors and Obama administration officials, and most disturbingly, because of its assault on freedom of speech by suing the Franklin Center and its independent journalism arm Watchdog.org.

Investigative journalists are few and far between, especially in the Obama era. Few dare to pore over documents and ask the tough questions of Democrats in power. The mainstream media has been asleep at the switch. Stories like Fast and Furious and Solyndra only came to light because of the work of the independent journalists and bloggers who worked tirelessly to expose the corruption within the Obama administration. The brave journalists at the Franklin Center who broke this story deserve widespread praise from the mainstream media. Instead they’ve been ignored because they are conservatives exposing corruption on the left. In other words, your typical double standard is at play.

Those who dare to step out and report on well-heeled and well-connected Washington insiders like liberal Democrat Terry McAuliffe, the founder and former chairman of GreenTech, find themselves the victims of smear campaigns and lawsuits. GreenTech is now suing the Franklin Center for $85 million in a clear effort to shut down their efforts to investigate the company. They intend to put a muzzle on the First Amendment. Like most on the left, the Constitution of the United States is only useful when it works for them.

It’s little wonder GreenTech would want to muzzle Watchdog.org considering what its reporters discovered. At the heart of the business were top-tier Clintonistas and Obama officials who had signed on to help the new business cash in on millions of dollars in “green energy” subsidies and financing plans courtesy of the American taxpayer. These were the same programs that proved so successful in keeping afloat Solyndra and Fisker–that is, until they went belly up.

Hugh Rodham, the disgraced brother of Hillary Clinton, led the company’s fundraising efforts. This of course is same Hugh Rodham responsible for the ethically dubious “legal services” to secure pardons from his brother in law, the 42nd President of the United States. One of Obama’s top campaign and cabinet officials, Rick Wade, is GreenTech’s vice president. Wade served as interim director, chief of staff and spokesman of Obama’s Department of Commerce, where he helped craft the $787 billion stimulus bill chock full of subsidies to other green energy boondoggles.

Perhaps most disturbing, Watchdog.org found that the company’s funding relied on a "cash for visas" program to attract foreign investment. Under the controversial EB-5 visa program, foreign nationals who invest $500,000 in U.S. companies are eligible for green cards for themselves and their families -- permanent U.S. residency. The Boston jihadists didn’t need a half million dollars to get here, but there’s no reason some well-funded terrorists couldn’t. This is exactly the kind of approach the Obama administration loves – looking the other way while people who hate our freedoms wallow their way onto our shores.

The scheme raised hackles when in 2009 GreenTech approached Democratic governor of Virginia Tim Kaine for state grants and subsidies to build their plant. Even Kaine officials had enough sense to turn this hare-brained scheme down. Officials were horrified when they evaluated the business plan. One labeled McAullife’s business “a visa-for-sale scheme with potential national security implications that we have no way to confirm or discount.”

Crony capitalism has reached new heights of audacity in the Obama era, but lest we forget, Republicans can be enticed too. When Virginia's concerns went unaddressed, McAuliffe went to Mississippi, where he found a warm welcome and an enticing mix of government handouts and tax holidays amounting to more than 8 million from Republican Governor Haley Barbour. There the company also got income and franchise tax exemptions for ten years.

Now that he is running for the highest office in Virginia, McAuliffe, the former chair of the Democratic National Committee and top fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 run, is trying to walk away from the radioactive disaster that is GreenTech. He claims he “resigned” from the company in December 2012, just as Watchdog.org began publishing its findings, but his resignation letter didn’t become available until four months later. Even the New York Times is now in on the act – talking about the scandal this company may wreak on the McAuliffe campaign. When the New York Times gets something right, you know it’s time to start paying attention.

McAuliffe likely hopes the headlines will go away, that his company’s lawsuit will succeed in intimidating others from reporting the facts, and that he can breeze to victory against the Republican Attorney General of Virginia Ken Cuccinelli. Well not if the citizen journalists of America, and fearless groups like the Franklin Center, have anything to do with it, We’re going to be sure GreenTech remains an albatross around McAuliffe’s neck until he’s defeated on November 5, 2013.

Scottie Hughes

NOTE: To share or email this 'Specific' article, you must click on the Title of the article.

Allen West - March Madness: Why America Needs to Be More Like NCAA Basketball, Not the Oscars

Col. Allen B. West is excited for college basketball's March Madness, and is looking forward to beating his fellow PJ Media co-workers in the 2013 NCAA bracket predictions, and taking home $30 in cash winnings. West suffered a painful loss when attempting to take part in the office Oscar pool. In the wake of that loss, Col. West examined the difference between the NCAA basketball championship, and the Academy Awards. Find out why he thinks the basketball championship is a true form of American meritocracy, while the Oscars are just another form of crony capitalism.

NOTE: To share or email this 'Specific' article, you must click on the Title of the article.

Michelle Fields - Sean Hannity - The Great American Panel

FNC's Sean Hannity hosts the panel with Michelle Fields -- Daily Caller Reporter; Dr. Michael Burgess (R) -- Texas Congressman/Author of 'Doctor in the House"; and Bob Beckel -- co-host of 'The Five'; weigh in to discuss "Crony Capitalism" taking place in congress as bills are introduced and affect stock prices. Also discussed: Obamacare, Welfare Spending, Food Stamps, and Unemployment.

NOTE: To share or email this 'Specific' article, you must click on the Title of the article.

Lurita Doan - Friends of Obama Allowed to Opt Out

Emigrant Bank was recently identified to receive a waiver that would allow the bank to opt out of rigorous Dodd-Frank requirements. These of course are the same new rules and regulations that Barack deems essential to the nation. Yet when the bank’s owner, Howard Milstein, who is a close friend and was a bundler for President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, protested that the new rules would seriously crimp operations of his bank, the Obama Administration worked with members of congress to grant him a waiver from the new rules.

Other financial institutions and banks have consistently and vehemently argued that the Dodd-Frank Legislation that Obama championed is seriously flawed and will bring a raft of unintended consequence--but they were not friends of Barack Obama. These many other banks and institutions are not deemed worthy of a waiver.

Sadly, the case of Emigrant Bank is not the only example of the Obama Administration’s mercurial application of our nation’s laws. There is the obvious case, now being decided by the Supreme Court, of Obamacare, in which some (Nebraska´s Cornhusker’s Kickback or Louisiana’s Purchase) are allowed full exemption from the law’s requirements. What those who are exempted have in common is that, once again, friends of Obama can expect special exemptions from the rules and laws that others must follow.

There seem to be two sets of rules. The special, privileged class of people and businesses (Friends of Obama -FOO) can expect to be granted unique waivers, carve outs and shameful side deals designed to escape, to dodge, and to be exempted from much of the overreaching, poorly conceived legislation and administrative orders that Obama’s White House pushes with utter conviction on the rest of the nation.

On the other hand, if an organization, such as the Catholic Church, that is not a FOO, seeks a principled exemption to an emerging national policy, the organization is ridiculed, dismissed, and ignored.

This disgraceful double standard is becoming a standard practice in the Obama Administration.

Want more examples? Arne Duncan has recently allowed some 10 states to have exemptions from No Child Left Behind. No doubt the Teachers’ Unions in these states, critical to Obama’s reelection, were keen to ditch the pesky requirements for improved accountability. How much easier to call up friend in the White House and demand an exemption from rules and regulations that are not popular with Union members!

Consider too, the case of government-backed loans to Solyndra. Typically, in a government-backed loan, the government’s is the first debt that must be settled. But if one is a FOO, the rules are different. In that kind of situation, the debt to the federal government (read American taxpayer) is subrogated to that of a friend of Obama—not only friend, but, one of his largest campaign contributors. Other organizations and companies cannot expect similar sweetheart deals--they are not FOO.

Consider also, the case of the revolving door. The law for the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch, is very clear. The statute mandates a two year ban on any kind of direct involvement with a previous employer, client or co-worker. Unless, it seems, if one is a FOO. In that case, the rules are different, which seems to have exempted Craig Becker, former counsel for the Service employees International Union (SEIU) who, through an Obama Administration recess appointment, served as a member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and who moved directly from there to his current position serving as general counsel to the AFL-CIO.

No time off or recusal needed for FOOs.

What does it mean for the country that the Obama Administration spends so much time exempting certain privileged individuals and businesses from the law?

Under Obama, will the United States devolve into a nation where laws are negotiable and will be applied differently for different people, as long as they belong to a special interest group that wants to opt out of the law and that also happens to be a friend of the president?

Our nation could once proudly boast of our national adherence to the Rule of Law. Every American should expect and demand equal treatment under the law, and special friends of the president should not expect or apply a different set of laws for themselves.

But, Barack Obama doesn’t seem to understand this basic principle that governs our nation, and , instead, seems to think that laws are flexible and the rules apply to others. (“Others” means anyone who is not a Friend of Obama-FOO).

Somewhere inside the White House, it is likely that yet another czar is employed to process the many requests for special treatment and waivers from the many new rules and regulations that Barack Obama has inflicted on the rest of the nation.

FOO have learned to expect special exemptions. The unlucky others are not only expected to follow those same rules, but to do so knowing full well that other, more connected FOO are escaping the burdensome new costs, and can avoid the intrusive requirements.

What a deal.

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.

NOTE: To share or email this 'Specific' article, you must click on the Title of the article.