The Right twittersphere has been buzzing for the past week about planned ambushes of CPAC 2012, the annual gathering of conservatives in D.C., by the Occupier mob. The conference kicks off today and every major Republican speaker has a giant target on his/her back — because every fame-seeker, troll, Michael Moore wannabe, and glitter-bomber will be looking to claim their 15 minutes of infamy.

Lachlan Markay at Heritage reported on the saboteurs’ schemes earlier this week:

During a Thursday meeting at McPherson Square, until Saturday the epicenter of the protests, Occupiers brainstormed tactics for shutting down or disrupting the conference, according to a source who was present at the meeting.

The protesters suggested pulling fire alarms in the hotel where the conference will take place, screaming “fire” during conference activities, “glitter-bombing” participants, cutting electrical power, and barricading entrances to the hotel, according to the source, who requested anonymity.

“Speakers will be physically assaulted, not just verbally confronted,” the source told Scribe in an email. Two Occupiers, who the source also identified as members of the New Black Panther Party, “said they would be disappointed if they didn’t get arrested and planned to ‘make it count.’”

The source quoted another protester as saying, “Mitt [Romney] has Secret Service now, but [Newt] Gingrich and [Andrew] Breitbart don’t,” seemingly suggesting that the latter two would not be as heavily guarded.

Protesters planned to conduct most of these activities on Saturday, the last day of the conference, so as not to overlap with the recently announced protests by labor groups on Thursday and Friday.

Labor Union Report has details of the Big Labor goons’ plans:

According to the AFL-CIO’s Washington DC Metro Council website, “Actions are currently being planned for noontime andafter work on Friday, February 10.”

Apparently, the unions plans to attempt to disrupt the conference with rats, puppets, and more:

WE’VE HEARD ENOUGH FROM THE 1%! Join the rally featuring tents, an inflatable fat cat, puppets, “candidate Walmart,” and more to LET THE VOICES OF THE 99% BE HEARD!

There is also a Facebook page for Occupy CPAC, posted by Change to Win staffer, Trina Tocco. It is important to note that Change to Win is the SEIU-led federation that broke away from the AFL-CIO in 2005—which means both union federations are involved in planning the attacks on CPAC.

Alas, for a mountain of family obligations and other reasons, I won’t be at CPAC this year. But I’ve been there and done that with the ambushers. And my advice is simple:

Mockery is the best medicine.

If they bring the glitter, you bring the silly string.

When they scream and spit, spray Lysol.

When they make a mess, bar the door and don’t let them leave ’til they clean it up.

Then soldier on!

***

Flashback: The conservative bloggers who attended BlogCon in Denver earlier this year ably dispatched the Occupier mob with hilarious wit and political jujitsu.

***

Commenter squeaker1: A “Super-Soaker” filled with lightly perfumed water would work well on smelly protesters.

What’s a week without more suspicious Solyndra news? This should be enough to get us by until the inevitable almost weekly document dump that could come tomorrow.

From the Washington Times:

Fast running out of money, solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC last summer sold off nearly $60 million worth of inventory for less than $20 million in cash to a newly formed corporate entity closely tied to the company’s biggest investors, records show.

Backed by $535 million in federal loan guarantees but burning through the little cash it had left, Solyndra made its first sale in late July to a corporate entity that had been formed just a day earlier. Three more transactions followed over the next few weeks with the same buyer, Solyndra Solar II.
[...]
Todd Zywicki, bankruptcy professor at the George Mason University School of Law, said it’s not unusual for troubled companies to sell off assets to improve liquidity. But he said the inventory sales figure cited by Solyndra — $58.1 million in inventory for $17.5 million in cash — seems unusual.

“The test under the bankruptcy code is whether the sale was for reasonably equivalent value and selling inventory at such a huge discount raises real concerns,” he said. “If Solyndra Solar II is owned or controlled by any insiders or anything like that, then it becomes even more suspicious.”

No word on how much the whistling robots were re-sold for.

Would the aforementioned bankruptcy professor consider these to be “insiders”?

Solyndra Solar II was formed in Delaware by affiliates of Solyndra’s debtor in possession lender — investors Argonaut Private Equity and Madrone Capital Partners — as well as other debt holders, bankruptcy and government records show. Another special-purpose entity, Solyndra Solar LLC, was formed to purchase the company’s accounts receivable.

Argonaut is the investment arm of a foundation headed by billionaire Oklahoma businessman George Kaiser. Madrone Partners has ties to Wal-Mart’s Walton family.

The real test is to wait and see if Solyndra Solar II (Electric Boondoggleoo) sells that inventory for which they paid $17.5 million back to the government for ten times that amount so the Department of Energy can offer it to the next clean energy upstart taxpayers will be on the hook for and thus complete the “green jobs circle of life.”

Obviously glass tubes used in solar panels must have not been in demand during the resale process. Your tax dollars at work:

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

I’m reserving any sense of closure on this craziness until convinced the 9th Circuit isn’t going to jump in at some point and not only reverse this decision, but make SeaWorld pay the orcas reparations.

From Fox News:

An effort to free whales from SeaWorld by claiming they were enslaved made a splash in the news but flopped in court Wednesday.

A federal judge in San Diego dismissed an unprecedented lawsuit seeking to grant constitutional protection against slavery to a group of orcas that perform at SeaWorld parks, saying the 13th amendment applies only to humans.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller stopped the case from proceeding two days after he became the first judge in U.S. history to listen to arguments in court over the possibility of granting constitutional rights for members of an animal species.

Here’s some news video. I predict that the final lawsuit revolving around this story has yet to be filed, and it will probably come from The Onion, which has a legitimate complaint for copyright infringement:

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

I’ll give him this much: with or without a budget, they manage to find ways to spend almost equally irresponsibly, so maybe he’s onto something:

At a briefing with journalists on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Hoyer was asked, “Mr. Hoyer, around the same time of the State of the Union [on Jan. 24], I think it was the same day, Republicans were trying to hit Senate Democrats for 1,000 days without passing a budget, and then you talk about this milestone today, 400 days without a jobs bill in the Republican House. But then on Friday [Democratic Senator Harry] Reid said that he didn’t think they needed to bring a budget to the floor this year [and that] the Budget Control Act can serve as a guideline.”

Hoyer said: “What does the budget do? The budget does one thing and really only one thing: It sets the parameters of spending and discretionary caps. Other than that, the Appropriations committee are not bound by the Budget committee’s priorities.”

He continued: “The fact is, you don’t need a budget. We can adopt appropriations bills. We can adopt authorization policies without a budget. We already have an agreed-upon cap on spending.”

They don’t need a budget, and it shows:

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Super PAC-men: Obama’s bundlers gone wild!
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2012

The White House didn’t blow a dog whistle for deep-pocketed liberal donors on Monday. No, the administration whipped out a supersized vuvuzela. Blaring message: Let loose the campaign finance-bundling hounds of super PAC war!

President Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, who served as White House deputy chief of staff for operations before assuming 2012 re-election duties, announced the super PAC super-flip-flop in a mass e-mail to supporters and a blog post published on the left-wing Huffington Post website. In a related conference call to major campaign finance bundlers, Messina encouraged these high-dollar donors to start funding Priorities USA Action. That’s the Democratic super PAC founded by former White House staffers Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney.

Super PACs and campaigns are barred from coordinating with each other. Nevertheless, Messina said that “senior campaign officials as well as some White House and Cabinet officials will attend and speak at Priorities USA fundraising events.” Of course, they “won’t be soliciting contributions.” Wink-wink, nudge-nudge.

This brazen about-face for Team Obama is a goldmine of campaign lies, contortions and epic hypocrisy. Let us count the ways.

– A bundle of contradictions. “Bundling” is the rustling up of aggregate contributions from friends, business associates and employees, a practice to circumvent individual donation limits that Obama has long condemned. When he announced his presidential intentions in 2007, candidate Obama decried “the cynics, the lobbyists, the special interests who’ve turned our government into a game only they can afford to play.” He indignantly singled out “the best bundlers” who get the “greatest access” to power.

Last week, Obama acknowledged raising at least $74 million through his team of big-time bundlers who have been showered with access, tax dollars and plum patronage positions. This elite group of Hollywood celebrities (such as open-borders actress Eva Longoria), political cronies (such as Chicago bagman Louis “The Vacuum” Susman) and politically correct businessmen (such as bankrupt Solyndra investor George Kaiser) now totals a whopping 445 gold-card members.

– The roar of the revolving door. In his Monday announcement, Messina bragged about how the White House has enacted “sweeping” reforms to “close the revolving door between government and lobbyists.” In truth, the administration has widened the carousel and removed the brakes. The Obama-cheerleading Fishwrap of Record (The New York Times) itself identified at least 15 bundlers “involved in lobbying for Washington consulting shops or private companies.”

Moreover, “at least 68 of 350 Obama bundlers for the 2012 election or their spouses have served in the administration in some capacity; at least 250 of the bundlers visited the White House, and another 30 have ties to companies that conduct business with federal agencies or hope to do so in the future,” according to a recent iWatch News report. Several first-time 2012 bundlers already have snagged administration posts:

– Norma Lee Funger, of Potomac, Md., who raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for Obama, was appointed last month to the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

– Glenn S. Gerstell, of Washington, D.C., who bundled the same amount, was appointed to the National Infrastructure Advisory Commission last fall.

– Richard Binder, of Bethesda, Md., another $50,000 to $100,000 bundler, was appointed to the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health last spring.

And note: The most transparent administration ever still refuses to disclose recusal orders involving the nearly 100 lobbyists and ex-lobbyists on its payroll.

– Super PAC super-hypocrisy. “Super PACs” are federal political action committees that only make independent expenditures in support of, or in opposition to, candidates. Their birth and growth were fueled indirectly by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission (FEC) ruling in 2010. The decision overturned severe campaign finance restrictions that essentially criminalized certain forms of political speech. As Chief Justice John Roberts put it during oral arguments: “We don’t put our First Amendment rights in the hands of FEC bureaucrats.”

Until this week, the Obama administration vehemently condemned the Citizens United decision and vowed to eschew super PACs. The entities are a “threat to our democracy,” Obama railed two years ago. The ruling would “open the floodgates for special interests,” he warned. And last July, Obama campaign press secretary Ben LaBolt kept talking the anti-super PAC talk. “Neither the president nor his campaign staff or aides will fundraise for super PACs,” he asserted. Now? President Obama and his wife won’t fundraise for the democracy-undermining super PACs. But countless other Cabinet members and advisers, partying with Obama bundlers gone wild, will.

In 2007, Obama lambasted rival Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards for criticizing independent expenditures while raking in big PAC bucks: “So you can’t say yesterday you don’t believe in them, and today you have three quarters of a million dollars being spent on you. You can’t just talk the talk.”

Obama 2012 campaign motto: Empty talk? Yes, we can!

Longtime readers of my work know that I’ve been exposing the compulsory-union dues racket since my days as a columnist at the Seattle Times. Here’s my 1999 column on how public school teachers in Washington state challenged their union over their political dues power grab. Here are your rights as a union worker. Here is a backgrounder on the permissible use of forced dues. As I wrote on Labor Day in 2010, free speech not only means the freedom to voice your political views, but also the freedom from being forced to pay for someone else’s.

U.S. Supreme Court precedent established by the D.C.-based National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation guarantees the right to full financial disclosure from a union and a right to challenge the figures in court if they disagree.

More and more rank-and-file union members have been speaking up against the confiscation of their dues for political purposes they oppose. Remember this Chicago SEIU member from 2010?

Or this letter from a Minnesota teacher last year?

As events have unfolded in Wisconsin, I have been reflecting on my nearly 10 years in public education. My parents were both teachers and I greatly admired the work they did with their own students. I began with that same passion for teaching that they instilled in me, but am finding it more and more difficult to keep that flame alive.

Frustrated in Minnesota

Well, today on Capitol Hill, more brave union members are testifying about the Big Labor money machine forcibly fueled with their hard-earned money. You can watch the proceedings live at 10am at the House Oversight website. You can read the prepared testimony of Mr. Terry Bowman of Ypsilanti, Michigan, Ms. Claire Waites of Daphne, Alabama and Ms. Sally Coomer of Duvall, Washington here.

Chairman Darrell Issa’s opening statement:

Every worker should have the choice to decide whether their money is taken from their paychecks and used to fund political activity. When this occurs, a worker should also have the right to know how their money is spent.

These actions will have far-reaching consequences. I welcome the union workers who have agreed to testify today and appreciate their willingness to speak their mind about what they see as unjust restrictions on their freedom of choice in our democracy.

Kudos to Rep. Issa — and especially to the rank-and-file members speaking truth to union thug power.

Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee believes that the only thing standing between America and another horrific day like 9/11 is an army of blue-gloved unionized government employees.

From Politico:

Handing airport screening duties to private companies could result in another terrorist attack like Sept. 11, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said Tuesday afternoon.

The Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill awaiting President Barack Obama’s signature directs the Transportation Security Administration to let more airports privatize their screening areas.

“My comment: we are looking forward to returning to 9/11,” Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said at a House Homeland Security subcommittee hearing.

You know who I wouldn’t want working airport security? A sizable chunk of Congress, starting with Sheila Jackson Lee — and she’s a government employee… go figure.

Note to SJL: It’s not as if the government-run TSA is without its little glitches.

(h/t Weasel Zippers)

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Scroll for updates…early results in Minnesota and Missouri looking good for Rick Santorum…SWEEEEEEEEEP!

You can get live, updated Colorado GOP caucus results here.

Minnesota caucus results will be here.

And Missouri primary results here.

***

Update: Networks projecting Santorum the winner in Missouri.

And he’s leading early in Minnesota.

What did I tell ya? Santorum’s got game. (ICYMI: My endorsement post last week.)

Now, he needs your help to unite the Right.

***

Note: If Santorum sweeps these critical battleground states tonight, he will have won more states than “frontrunner” Mitt Romney (he has snagged three states).

Nothing is inevitable in politics.

Also noteworthy: Santorum is doing this with just a fraction of Mitt Romney’s money.

Money can take you far, but just like Mitt Romney learned in 2008 and is learning again, it can’t seal the deal.

***

Commenter TigerLady:

I’ve had so many people tell me today my vote in Missouri “doesn’t count”. I voted Santorum. If it “doesn’t count” at least I exercised my right to do it.

Fun fact from Erik Telford:

Romney won the 2008 MN Caucus w/ 41%. Tonight, he garnered 16%, placing 3rd behind RON PAUL. That Pawlenty endorsement really helped…

T-Guffaw.

***

Update 10:54pm Eastern: Santorum at Missouri victory speech: “Conservatism is alive and well in Missouri and Minnesota…1600 Pennsylvania better be listening.”

Staying focused: Santorum blasting radical Obama policies — cap and trade, Obamacare, bailouts — in Missouri victory speech.

Romney shares many of the same positions as Obama.

“I’m not the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney. I’m the conservative alternative to Barack Obama.”

“Supply-side economics for the working man is resonating.”

“I care about 100 percent of Americans.”

“Freedom is at stake in this election.”

Update 11:35pm Eastern…Santorum maintaining lead as precinct returns get tallied up here in Colorado.

Significant: Romney lost Adams County to Santorum. He won 67% there in 2008. Barely scraped together 31 percent this year. This is the Denver suburbs.

Update 12:30am It’s a squeaker. With 51 percent reporting and liberal Denver and suburban Denver votes coming in, Romney has eked ahead for the first time tonight 37-35 over Santorum. El Paso County, where I live, is still counting votes. Santorum has a big lead here and these votes will offset some of the Denver edge Romney has.

Update 1:04am Eastern – GOP Party Chairman of Colorado Ryan Call announces on CNN that with 98 percent of precincts reporting, Rick Santorum has won Colorado, completing his 2/7 trifecta.

He “exceeded expectations,” says Call. His margin of victory in my home county of El Paso was 1300 votes.

Video:

Update 1:38am – With 100 percent precincts reporting, final margin of victory:



Denver Post coverage of Colorado caucus results:

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum upended the race for the Republican nomination Tuesday, winning three states including Colorado.

Colorado’s race see-sawed throughout the night until 11 p.m., when Colorado GOP Chair Ryan Call declared Santorum the winner. But the race was a near tie.

“This is a major upset,” said Denver-based political analyst Floyd Ciruli. “Definitely, there is a new story now.”

Even Romney, who easily won the Republican contest in 2008 with 60 percent of the vote, acknowledged in his speech from the Auraria campus his new challenger.

“This was a good night for Rick Santorum, but I still expect to become the nominee,” he said. “I look forward to the contest to come.”

***

I repeat: The “frontrunner” with a $30 million war chest now has won fewer states than Rick Santorum.

I repeat: Money can take you far, but just like Mitt Romney learned in 2008 and is learning again, it can’t seal the deal.

***

Mitt Romney: Tonight, you were Rick-rolled.

***

Santorum won Minnesota, Missouri, and Colorado the same way he won Iowa: Hard work.

Congratulations, Sen. Santorum, on your 2/7 trifecta!

Now, get ready for the attacks, the press smears, more glitter, and likely CPAC ambushes. Forewarned is forearmed.


]]>Photo source: RickSantorum.com Scroll for updates…early results in Minnesota and Missouri looking good for Rick Santorum…SWEEEEEEEEEP! You can get live, updated Colorado GOP caucus results here. Minnesota caucus results will be here. And Missouri primary results here. *** Update: Networks projecting Santorum the winner in Missouri. And he’s leading early in Minnesota. What did I [...]http://michellemalkin.com/2012/02/07/caucus-night-open-thread-colorado-minnesota-missouri/feed/322http://michellemalkin.com/2012/02/07/democrat-obamacare/Barack ObamaHealth careNancy PelosiPoliticsDoug PowersTue, 07 Feb 2012 12:40:28 PSThttp://michellemalkin.com/?p=103816**Written by Doug Powers

If she actually couldn’t see this coming, her family might want to make sure she never crosses the street unescorted:

Former Democratic congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper, a Catholic from Erie, Pennsylvania, cast a crucial vote in favor of Obamacare in 2010. She lost her seat that November in part because of her controversial support of Obamacare. But Dahlkemper said recently that she would have never voted for the health care bill had she known that the Department of Health and Human Services would require all private insurers, including Catholic charities and hospitals, to provide free coverage of contraception, sterilization procedures, and the “week-after” pill “ella” that can induce early abortions.

“I would have never voted for the final version of the bill if I expected the Obama Administration to force Catholic hospitals and Catholic Colleges and Universities to pay for contraception,” Dahlkemper said in a press release sent out by Democrats for Life in November.

What part of Nancy Pelosi’s health care law proclamation didn’t Dahlkemper understand?

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe


]]>She <I>wasn't kidding</I>http://michellemalkin.com/2012/02/07/democrat-obamacare/feed/73http://michellemalkin.com/2012/02/07/document-drop-lib-9th-circuit-rules-proposition-8-unconstitutional/Proposition 8Michelle MalkinTue, 07 Feb 2012 10:09:00 PSThttp://michellemalkin.com/?p=103810No surprises here:

California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages is unconstitutional, according to a ruling announced Tuesday by an appeals court.

The long-awaited ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court is likely to lead to more appeals, and marriages probably will remain on hold until that process ends.

The case was pending for months because the court wanted a ruling from the state Supreme Court on whether proponents of Proposition 8 had legal standing under the state’s citizen’s initiative process to appeal the ruling.

Here’s the decision:

10-16696 #398_Decision

What’s next? Appeals and more appeals:

ProtectMarriage, the backers of Proposition 8, can appeal Tuesday’s decision to a larger panel of the 9th Circuit or go directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court is expected to be divided on the issue, and many legal scholars believe Justice Anthony Kennedy will be the deciding vote.

Gays and lesbians were entitled to marry in California for six months after the California Supreme Court struck down a state ban in May 2008. The state high court later upheld Proposition 8 as a valid amendment of the California Constitution.

While the Proposition 8 case was still pending in state court, two same-sex couples sued in federal court to challenge the ban on federal constitutional grounds.

***

Tweet of the day: @arizonashane “Given the opportunity, the 9th Circus would strike down the Constitution as unconstitutional.


]]>No surprises here: California&#8217;s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages is unconstitutional, according to a ruling announced Tuesday by an appeals court. The long-awaited ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court is likely to lead to more appeals, and marriages probably will remain on hold until that process ends. The case was pending for months because [...]http://michellemalkin.com/2012/02/07/document-drop-lib-9th-circuit-rules-proposition-8-unconstitutional/feed/149http://michellemalkin.com/2012/02/07/the-haute-couture-money-grubber/2012 CampaignCampaign financeDemocratsPoliticsMichelle MalkinTue, 07 Feb 2012 07:56:19 PSThttp://michellemalkin.com/?p=103803

The People’s President is raising money any way he can — and the fashion world’s 1 percent-ers have stepped up to the plate to help.

Via the WSJ:

At a New York fund-raising event Tuesday called “Runway to Win,” President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign plans to begin selling campaign-themed tote bags, T-shirts and accessories designed by more than two dozen famous designers.

Attendees can purchase a tote bag designed by Derek Lam for $75. A collectible makeup bag created by Richard Blanch with nail polish in Red-y To Win Red, Victory White and Bo Blue is going for $40. And a silk scarf featuring Mr. Obama’s likeness by Thakoon Panichgul is $95. Profits from the sales will go to Mr. Obama’s campaign chest.

Republicans are rightly raising campaign finance questions about the haute couture deals:

“This raises serious questions about whether corporate money, property and employees were improperly used in the design and production of these items without reimbursement,” said Sean Spicer, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

Jan Baran, an election lawyer with Wiley Rein LLP, said designers can’t ask employees to work on political projects unless they willingly volunteered their time. “Someone who is paid to do campaign work is not a volunteer,” he said. If the designer or staff are paid by anyone other than the campaign, it would be considered a campaign contribution from a company to a candidate.

The Obama campaign said the gear complies with campaign-finance rules.

“All of the designers volunteered their personal time to create these great designs,” the campaign said, and were “not underwritten with any corporate funds.”

Rap mogul and designer Russell Simmons is defending Obama’s By Any Technically Legal Means Necessary strategy:

Asked on CNN whether selling designer products could violate campaign finance rules – as some Republicans have suggested – Simmons said, “I think the president should use whatever resources he has within the law.”

“The problem is the law the problem is that we allow so much money in politics and there are so many people funding these super PACs that are out of control,” he added. “Until the laws are changed, the president should play by any rules available.”

Question: How much would you pay for this???



***

I’ll have pleeenty to say about Obama’s SuperPAC super-hypocrisy tomorrow.


]]>The People&#8217;s President is raising money any way he can &#8212; and the fashion world&#8217;s 1 percent-ers have stepped up to the plate to help. Via the WSJ: At a New York fund-raising event Tuesday called &#8220;Runway to Win,&#8221; President Barack Obama&#8217;s re-election campaign plans to begin selling campaign-themed tote bags, T-shirts and accessories designed [...]http://michellemalkin.com/2012/02/07/the-haute-couture-money-grubber/feed/118http://michellemalkin.com/2012/02/06/fisker-dept-of-energy-funding/AutomakersObama Jobs Death TollPoliticsDoug PowersMon, 06 Feb 2012 19:28:53 PSThttp://michellemalkin.com/?p=103792**Written by Doug Powers


Fisker Automotive, which was granted a $529 million US Dept. of Energy loan guarantee and then announced they would assemble the first line of cars in Finland, has announced layoffs at a Delaware plant that has yet to produce a single car:

The company says 26 Fisker employees have been let go from the Delaware factory where renowned automotive engineer Henrik Fisker promised to one day begin producing affordable electric sedans. A Delaware newspaper also reported that subcontractors working on the car venture have been let go.

“It’s temporary,” said Roger Ormisher, a company spokesman. “We’re being prudent and sensible as a company.”

Because the initial phase sounds like it’s been such an unqualified success, the company is asking for terms of the federal loan to be altered so the company can have faster access to their line of time-released taxpayer-backed credit:

Accompanying the layoffs was an announcement that Fisker has approached the Department of Energy about revising the targets it had to meet in order to continue drawing money from the federal loan. Whether the Energy Department agrees to alter the terms, and invest more taxpayer [money] in the Fisker venture remains unclear.
[...]
To date, Fisker has received $193 million in government funds, according to a company statement. Back in October, the company acknowledged outsourcing Karma assembly to Finland, but said that the bulk of its government funds would be used to launch a second-generation electric vehicle, still under wraps, that would be assembled in a shuttered General Motors plant in Delaware. Some of those hired to prepare the Delaware plant for that effort were among those let go.
[...]
“We have temporarily delayed work at the plant based on ongoing discussions with the DOE regarding funding for the Project Nina program,” the company’s statement said. “As a result, we have laid off 26 people.”

This all sounds too familiar, doesn’t it? But since Leo DiCaprio, Al Gore and Colin Powell must not be denied warranty coverage, it’s important for the DoE to help keep Fisker afloat.

Related madness:

Obama’s green robber barons

Eleven other Solyndras

Stimulus-backed “green” bankruptcy of the week: Ener1

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe


]]>**Written by Doug Powers Fisker Automotive, which was granted a $529 million US Dept. of Energy loan guarantee and then announced they would assemble the first line of cars in Finland, has announced layoffs at a Delaware plant that has yet to produce a single car: The company says 26 Fisker employees have been let [...]http://michellemalkin.com/2012/02/06/fisker-dept-of-energy-funding/feed/54http://michellemalkin.com/2012/02/06/liberal-politician-intrusion/Health careMichelle ObamaPoliticiansPoliticsDoug PowersMon, 06 Feb 2012 13:28:29 PSThttp://michellemalkin.com/?p=103764**Written by Doug Powers

Before the payoff, here’s a brief set-up:

Florida’s poor can use food stamps to buy staples like milk, vegetables, fruits and meat. But they can also use them to buy sweets like cakes, cookies and Jell-O and snack foods like chips, something a state senator wants stopped.

Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, also wants to limit other welfare funds, known as Temporary Assistance For Needy Families, from being used at ATMs in casinos and strip clubs and anywhere out of state. The bill comes after reports that the debit cards welfare recipients now receive were used in those places, as well as locations in Las Vegas and the Virgin Islands in a small percentage of cases, but the state does not track what items were purchased.

The bill recently passed a committee. A companion bill in the state House companion is being considered by a subcommittee.

You’d think the food police would be thrilled. If there’s anything they should get behind, it’s an initiative designed to encourage lower income people to avoid unhealthy eats… right?

But instead, one Democrat gives us our chuckle of the day by denouncing (albeit selectively) the notion of food police — and maybe even things like health care mandates. Get a load of this:

But critics say the government shouldn’t dictate what people eat.

“What I choose to ingest even though I may be on food stamps, that’s at my discretion. I don’t need government telling me what I can and cannot purchase,” said Rep. Gwyndolen Clarke-Reed, a Pompano Beach Democrat who voted in committee against the bill (SB 1658). She said the bill is demeaning and invasive and she worries the education campaign would imply to “minorities and low-income folks that they’re not intelligent enough to make selections on the foods they want.”

How many calories are burned by doubling over in laughter for several minutes? Maybe this is part of the “Let’s Move” program and people are being tricked into exercising. It wouldn’t be the first time.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe


]]>Mixed messageshttp://michellemalkin.com/2012/02/06/liberal-politician-intrusion/feed/95http://michellemalkin.com/2012/02/06/ronald-reagan-101/PoliticsMichelle MalkinMon, 06 Feb 2012 11:39:05 PSThttp://michellemalkin.com/?p=103767AFP commemorates the 101st anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth with a Reagan 101 tutorial contrasting the polar opposite visions of Reagan and Obama:

]]>AFP commemorates the 101st anniversary of Ronald Reagan&#8217;s birth with a Reagan 101 tutorial contrasting the polar opposite visions of Reagan and Obama:http://michellemalkin.com/2012/02/06/ronald-reagan-101/feed/103http://michellemalkin.com/2012/02/06/middle-class/Barack ObamaDemocratsGOPDoug PowersMon, 06 Feb 2012 10:36:44 PSThttp://michellemalkin.com/?p=103735**Written by Doug Powers

During the clamor to pass an extension of the payroll tax cut, President Obama asked “What does $40 mean to you?”

His opponents of the way the extension was handled might now be able to counter with, “What does $9,500 mean to you?”

(CBS News) Just before Christmas, American workers got a rare gift from Washington politicians – the current payroll tax cut would be extended for two more months. At the time, both President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner lauded the move to avoid a tax increase for millions of working Americans. But there’s something the politicians weren’t bragging about – the fact that they’re paying for the two-month tax cut with what has turned into a brand new fee on home buyers.

The new fee is a minimum of one-tenth of 1 percent on Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-backed loans, and is likely to go much higher. It will be imposed for the next 10 years on most mortgages and refinancings and it lasts for the life of the loan. For every $200,000, it amounts to an extra $15 dollars a month.

It’s bad news for Patty Anderson, who’s buying a home in Virginia. Anderson will save a couple hundred dollars from having her payroll tax cut extended but her mortgage broker told her the new fee would cost her almost $9,500.
[...]
The $35.7 billion collected in fees won’t go into the Social Security fund to replace the lost payroll tax. It goes to the general treasury where Congress can spend it however they please.

Is this outlined in the Homeowners Bill of Rights?

For now, file this under “robbing Peter for decades to pay Peter for a couple of months”:

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe


]]>**Written by Doug Powers During the clamor to pass an extension of the payroll tax cut, President Obama asked &#8220;What does $40 mean to you?&#8221; His opponents of the way the extension was handled might now be able to counter with, &#8220;What does $9,500 mean to you?&#8221; (CBS News) Just before Christmas, American workers got [...]http://michellemalkin.com/2012/02/06/middle-class/feed/35