Hypocrite!

[Havakasha]

MON JUN 04, 2012 AT 01:45 PM PDT
Mitt Romney expands his personal collection of Massachusetts Solyndras
byJed Lewison

Isn't there a saying about those in glass houses throwing stones? (Beck Diefenbach/Reuters)
Mitt Romney, who last week attacked President Obama over the failure of Solyndra despite having backed two failed green energy firms with public funds in Massachusetts, just got another Solyndra-style failure hung around his neck:
A Massachusetts solar company to which Mitt Romney personally delivered a $1.5 million loan when he was governor has gone belly up, leaving him vulnerable to the same "picking winners and losers" charges that he's been lobbing at President Barack Obama over Solyndra.
The president's reelection campaign wasted no time noting Romney's support for Lowell-based Konarka Technologies, which announced Friday it had filed for bankruptcy protection with plans to lay off more than 80 workers and liquidate its assets.

The filing came on the heels of Romney's unannounced visit last week to Solyndra's Silicon Valley headquarters, where he accused the Obama administration of a conflict of interest and poor judgment in approving Solyndra's $535 million Energy Department loan guarantee.

Of course, if Mitt Romney were a man of conviction, he wouldn't be attacking President Obama over Solyndra and his hypocrisy wouldn't be an issue. But he's not, and it is.

http://www.dailykos.com/

[Havakasha]

Article shows how Romney supported the individual mandate.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...587354714.html
Updated June 5, 2012, 9:34 a.m. ET
How Romney Pushed State Health Bill
Emails Show Governor Defending Insurance Mandate for Massachusetts Residents

By MARK MAREMONT

When Mitt Romney left office as Massachusetts governor, his aides removed all emails from a server computer in the governor's office, and purchased and carted off hard drives from 17 state-owned personal computers, according to a current state official.


A trove of emails show then-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romeny defending an insurance mandate for state residents. Mark Maremont has details on The News Hub. Photo: AP.

But a small cache of emails survived, including some that have never publicly surfaced surrounding Mr. Romney's efforts to pass his now-controversial health-care law. The emails show the Republican governor was closely engaged in negotiating details of the bill, working with top Democratic state leaders and drafting early copies of opinion articles backing it.

Then-Gov. Romney with his health secretary, Timothy Murphy, and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy after signing Massachusetts' health-care law in 2006.

Mr. Romney and his aides, meanwhile, strongly defended the so-called individual mandate, a requirement that everyone in Massachusetts have or buy heath insurance. And they privately discussed ideas that might be anathema to today's GOP—including publicly shaming companies that didn't provide enough health insurance to employees.

Mr. Romney signed the bill April 12, 2006, and that night sent an email thanking a top aide, saying the law would help "hundreds of thousands of people…have healthier and happier lives."

Through a public-records request, The Wall Street Journal obtained what is believed to be the most complete set of the internal emails to date, including attachments to some of the messages.


Read some of the emails surrounding Mitt Romney's efforts to pass his now-controversial Massachusetts health-care law.


Mr. Romney once trumpeted the overhaul as his signature achievement as governor, but he has since played it down amid GOP attacks on the 2010 federal health-care bill signed by President Barack Obama, which bears similarities to the Massachusetts plan. Both contain individual mandates that require residents to buy health insurance.

[SiriuslyLong]

Damn, now who does one vote for?

I think Mr. Kos really should point out the difference between 1.5 MM and 535 MM. Ah shit, what is a number anyway.......

[Havakasha]

Hypocrisy is hypocrisy.

And YOU should point out all those successful companies who have been assisted by the gov't.
You're a right wing ideologue so of course you wont.



Lisa Murkowski Warns Against ‘Knee-Jerk' Reaction To Solyndra
The Huffington Post | By Lucia Graves
Posted: 06/05/2012 11:13 pm

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) warned against a “knee-jerk” response to Solyndra, breaking with top Republicans as she voiced her support for federally backed renewable energy programs, including the loan program that aided the now-bankrupt solar manufacturer.

“I think we need to get through this period and be able to reflect on what it is that actually comes out of these loan guarantee programs," Murkowski, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told The Hill Tuesday. "We are focusing right now on the failures instead of also recognizing that we have done good things for the loan guarantee program. We need to make sure it does what it is supposed to be doing."

[SiriuslyLong]

Hypocrisy is hypocrisy.

And YOU should point out all those successful companies who have been assisted by the gov't.
You're a right wing ideologue so of course you wont.



Lisa Murkowski Warns Against ‘Knee-Jerk' Reaction To Solyndra
The Huffington Post | By Lucia Graves
Posted: 06/05/2012 11:13 pm

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) warned against a “knee-jerk” response to Solyndra, breaking with top Republicans as she voiced her support for federally backed renewable energy programs, including the loan program that aided the now-bankrupt solar manufacturer.

“I think we need to get through this period and be able to reflect on what it is that actually comes out of these loan guarantee programs," Murkowski, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told The Hill Tuesday. "We are focusing right now on the failures instead of also recognizing that we have done good things for the loan guarantee program. We need to make sure it does what it is supposed to be doing."

If treating OUR tax dollars preciously is right wing ideology, then I guess I am indeed guilty as charged.

Obviously with Solyndra, something was missed. OUR tax dollars should not be used by OUR government as venture capital.

[Havakasha]

The Romney campaign knows it has some explaining to do.

On Sunday, the campaign defended the former Massachusetts governor’s jobs record, arguing that the state’s bottom-of-the-barrel status as 47th in job creation ignores the improvement made between the beginning and end of Romney term. But when it comes to attacking President Obama’s jobs record, the Romney campaign doesn’t always apply the same standard.

For example, the campaign’s press secretary Andrea Saul sang a different tune last month:

President Obama hasn’t created a net single new job … Since he started his presidency, he has not created any jobs. Not when you look at the full picture of the economy.
It’s a fine line for the campaign to walk, as it simultaneously uses averages and “net” jobs numbers to insist that Obama’s jobs record is sub-par. Romney adviser Kerry Healey, who served as Romney’s lieutenant governor in Massachusetts, tried to thread that needle in an appearance Tuesday on CNN. Averages, Healey said, are an unfair measure of a chief executive’s record — one that matters less than whether a leader spurred “progression.”

[Havakasha]

This is what a relatively non-partisan moderate Republican says.
We know all to well what a right wing ideologue says and does.


Lisa Murkowski Warns Against ‘Knee-Jerk' Reaction To Solyndra
The Huffington Post | By Lucia Graves
Posted: 06/05/2012 11:13 pm

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) warned against a “knee-jerk” response to Solyndra, breaking with top Republicans as she voiced her support for federally backed renewable energy programs, including the loan program that aided the now-bankrupt solar manufacturer.

“I think we need to get through this period and be able to reflect on what it is that actually comes out of these loan guarantee programs," Murkowski, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told The Hill Tuesday. "We are focusing right now on the failures instead of also recognizing that we have done good things for the loan guarantee program. We need to make sure it does what it is supposed to be doing."

[SiriuslyLong]

Green jobs?


The Obama administration on Wednesday acknowledged a wide-ranging definition of “green jobs” that includes bus driver, bicycle-shop clerk and other unexpected lines of employment, which the chairman of the GOP-led House oversight committee said is being done for “clearly political purposes.”

GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, made the assertion during a hearing on how the administration counts so-called green jobs and the Labor Department’s recent change to how reporters can access key unemployment reports and other information.

The Labor Department "has jeopardized the integrity of employment data in some cases for clearly political reasons," he said.

Issa suggested the administration is reclassifying such jobs to prove that billions of taxpayer dollars, through the federal stimulus program, have created green, or environmentally-focused jobs – a major initiative for President Obama.

“It’s about politics. It’s always been about politics,” said Issa, R-Calif. “If you work at the Salvation Army, that’s a green job.”



http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012...tical-purpose/

Conclusion: the left is full of shit as much as the right.

[Havakasha]

Darrell Issa? One of the most right wing ideologues in the Congress. I hope you checked his record before you posted that.

[Havakasha]

http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2...tch-hunts.html



Obama Derangement Syndrome and GOP Witch Hunts

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

There are two stories today in the Washington Post that make one consider whether our elected leaders have gone entirely mad.

The first headline fails to adequately describe the serious story of corruption that it is about. Demise of Iraqi water park illustrates limitations, abuse of U.S. funding program. What is this story about?

The troubled history of [the Commander's Emergency Response Program] speaks to the limitations and mishandling of a program that has provided U.S. military commanders with $5 billion for projects in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past six years. The program has given officers enormous flexibility to address urgent needs with few bureaucratic hassles.

* * *

U.S. military officials say the program has been an invaluable tool to turn enemies into friends and to marginalize extremist groups and counter the root causes of instability. But U.S. lawmakers and government auditors have criticized the way the program has been run. They say commanders have used it to build large and often-unsuitable projects of dubious value. Critics say smaller initiatives funded by the program have received little oversight, making it difficult to gauge their effectiveness. Often, Iraqi officials provided little, if any, input in the ventures, damaging their long-term viability.

Recently, even some U.S. commanders have begun voicing reservations about the fund, saying there is little evidence that the millions pumped into the Iraqi economy during and after the U.S. troop surge in 2007 achieved the intended results.

This story of misspent "discretionary" billions in Iraq follows on the heels of the 2010 Pentagon audit that found 8.7 billion dollars in Iraq funds not accounted for: audit:

The Pentagon received 9.1 billion dollars in 2004 from the fund set up by the US-led occupation authority to benefit Iraqis with Iraqi oil and gas revenues and assets seized from the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein.

But the audit found the Pentagon cannot properly account for 8.7 billion dollars because defense agencies that received the money failed to set up required Treasury accounts and no single organization was created to manage the funds.

The audit found that "weaknesses" in the Department of Defense (DOD) financial and management controls meant it could not account properly for the funds.

There is a real scandal here that Congress should be investigating, right? Which brings me to the second headline in the Washington Post today: Issa says Obama administration is 'one of most corrupt'. That's right, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) wants to be the next Dan Burton who waged the witch hunts against the Clinton administration in the '90s.

You remember Dan Burton (R-IN), don't you?

Burton led the House inquiry into the death of Vincent Foster; he was convinced that Foster was murdered and urged extensive investigation into the possible involvement of the Clintons. Burton gained attention for re-enacting the alleged crime in his backyard with his own pistol and a pumpkin standing in for Foster's head.
Burton's investigation of the Whitewater controversy was based on opposition research conducted by Floyd Brown, who founded Citizens United in 1988, which created the well-known Willie Horton attack ad against Michael Dukakis. Because of the problems with the quality of Brown's research and testimony, the investigation was closed.
In 1997, Burton headed an investigation into possible Democratic Party campaign finance abuse, focusing on the 1996 Presidential election. The committee investigation ran for several years and issued over 1,000 subpoenas of Clinton administration officials and cost over $7 million. The committee, and Burton's leadership, were labeled a "farce," a "travesty," a "parody," and "its own cartoon, a joke, and a deserved embarrassment."
Yes, but Burton provided right-wing talk radio and the fledgling FAUX News network the grist for its rumor mill of daily conspiracy theories with which to feed the conservative base. And the mainstream media, to its great discredit and eternal shame, reported many of these bullshit stories because of the "noise" in the right-wing echo chamber. This is the job that Issa has been tasked with performing for the next two years.

So who is this prick, Darrell Issa? He made his fortune hawking the Viper car alarm system in the '80s, using his voice for the "STAND BACK" warning. Issa later sold his controlling stake in Directed Electronics, the company that still sells Viper car alarms. As of last year, he was ranked the wealthiest member of Congress with a net worth estimated at $251 million. Yeah, he's that guy you curse every time your neighbor's car alarm goes off in the middle of the night.



It seems a car alarm was a natural choice for a guy with a record of "youthful indiscretion." Jillian Barclay writes Darrell Issa To Lead Obama Investigations: Suspected Arson, Car Theft, Weapons Charges! Wait! That Is Issa's Past!:

Just who is Darrell Issa and what is his past? First, Issa's history with auto theft charges: In 1971, Issa reportedly took a Dodge sedan from an Army post where he was stationed near Pittsburgh. There were no charges filed in that case, but the story was leaked to the press by a retired Army sergeant, who says he threatened Issa and then was able to retrieve the car. As a college student in 1972, Issa and his brother were arrested in Cleveland, suspected of stealing a red Maserati from a dealership. The witnesses recognized Darrell and his brother, William as they pushed the Maserati down the street. The third incident took place in San Jose, California. In 1980, Issa, then 27 years old, and his brother William, 29, were again arrested and this time indicted on felony auto theft charges. William Issa, using his brother's second driver's license, sold younger Darrell's cherry red Mercedes to a dealer for $16,000.00. Three hours after William received and cashed the check, Darrell reported the car stolen. The police also charged Darrell because his answers to questions were inconsistent.

* * *

In 1982, Issa was suspected, but never charged in a suspicious fire that burned his Ohio manufacturing plant. Although there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Issa, the police suspected he was behind the fire based on two facts. Just a few weeks prior to the fire, Issa increased the fire insurance coverage to quadruple the original amount and according to the company bookkeeper, Karen Brasdovich, a few days before the fire, records and a company computer were removed from the plant, which was completely out of character for Issa. Charges were not filed due to lack of evidence, but the suspicions remain.

Issa was arrested twice for weapons charges, once in Ohio and once in Michigan.

* * *

Whenever Congressman Issa is pressed by reporters to explain past arrests and scandals, he has almost always bristled and brushed off the questions. He has repeatedly stated that he was "just a kid" or that it "was my brother." He additionally states that these things happened so long ago that he really doesn't remember the details.

Darrell "Grand Theft Auto" Issa's partisanship motivated pursuit of witch hunts against the Obama administration to feed the right-wing noise machine leads Steve Benen at The Washington Monthly to ask whether this is a case of Obama Derangement Syndrome on the right:

Just a few month ago, shortly before the midterm elections, Rep. Darrel Issa (R-Calif.) told Rush Limbaugh he considers President Obama "one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times." Soon after, the Washington Post's Ruth Marcus noted, "If Issa believes this, he is deranged. If he doesn't and is saying it anyway, he is dangerous."

A month later, pressed by ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Issa walked it back.