Apparently, a bombshell email from the ATF has surfaced.
The Stop Online Piracy Act
Wow, the tweets from today’s hearing are pretty dismaying. Unfortunately, technical savvy is not a critical characteristic to get elected.
Is SpaceX Changing The Rocket Equation?
A long piece on the company by Andrew Chaikin.
Change
This was their moment. This was their time.
The Obama record is one of almost undiluted failures. And no group of Americans have been hurt more by his failures than the poor, the weak and defenseless, and those living in the shadows of society. One might even say that compared to his predecessor — who said that our national character shines in our compassion; that we must be rich in justice and moral courage; and that Americans have always found our better selves in sympathy and generosity in our lives and in our laws — Obama has offered a vision of America where everybody is left to fend for themselves.
While taking away the tools with which to do so.
[Update a few minutes later]
To increase jobs, increase economic freedom.
But we can’t have that. Not enough opportunities for graft.
[Update a few minutes later]
Frank J. takes on the biggest fat cat of them all:
If you’re wondering where all our money went, look to the country’s only trillionaire, who is stroking his weird goat beard and laughing at us.
It wouldn’t be so bad if Uncle Sam earned his money, but he doesn’t. He’s never produced anything — he gets all his money through deception.
For instance, he said he was going to provide retirement savings for everyone, but the whole thing is a Ponzi scheme in which Uncle Sam constantly raids the funds while giving people a horrible return on their investments. He’s bilked people out of trillions with that scam; Bernie Madoff is a shoplifter by comparison.
He’s always looking for more ways to scam people, hiding fees everywhere. He even grabs money out of our paychecks and then gives us a small fraction back once a year as a “rebate” and expects us to be grateful.
You almost have to admire his shamelessness; he mugs you and expects you to thank him because he gave you back a dollar.
Uncle Sam has absolutely no appreciation for his unearned wealth and just spends it lavishly and pointlessly. A while back, people were criticizing how much he was spending on public-radio stations no one listens to, and his defense was that it was only $100 million. Only $100 million. Can you even imagine being so wealthy that $100 million is an inconsequential sum?
Next November, we get another opportunity to try to fix the problem.
Oh, The Places We Could Go
A review of a new exhibit on space settlement and development at the Museum of Natural History.
“We’re Going To Burn NYC To The F’ing Ground”
In which the Occupooers demonstrate once again they’re just like the Tea Party.
A New Flaw In ObamaCare
Oops. Hey, Queen Nancy told us we’d have to pass the bill to find out what was in it.
[Update a few minutes later]
Does the Constitution make you a cash cow for special interests? A lot of politicians seem to think so.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Justice Kagan, recuse thyself. The problem with that is, as it says, it presumes that she’s a person of character.
[Update a while later]
ObamaCare is killing small medical practices. Which was the goal.
Congressional Insider Trading
So, what’s worse about this — that they’re getting wealthy off of inside info, or that its potential effects on their portfolio is influencing their legislative decisions?
We Have To Make Space Relevant
Some thoughts on the current policy mess from Dennis Wingo.
Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That
So, the White House pressured Solyndra to time its layoffs for political reasons:
Yes, very odd, isn’t it? Actually, it’s so transparently obvious that even Joe Biden could piece together this mystery: Team Obama knew their party was already headed for a world of hurt on election day and wanted to mitigate the damange to the greatest extent possible. Plus, by dropping this ugly news on November 3rd, the entire news media would be suitably distracted by the (important) task of breaking down just how devastating the previous night’s GOP tidal wave had been. From the White House’s perspective, it was a win/win strategy. They could escape or delay electoral consequences for their own abysmal failures, then try to slip the entire development past the American people. So they applied enormous pressure and dangled a $40 million carrot in front of Solyndra’s CEO to “persuade” him to play ball. Lo and behold, he did.
A month later, Solyndra partially defaulted on its loan — which, it’s worth noting, the White House knew from day one was a wildly risky taxpayer-funded gamble — thus violating its terms. They were duly “punished” for this violation with a generous restructuring of their loan guarantee, which authorized politically-connected private financiers like Obama donor George Kaiser* to recoup the first $75 million if (or, more accurately, when) the company went belly-up. This it is precisely what happened in early September of 2011. This arrangement may have violated the law, but legal concerns were shrugged off. The big question: Regarding the politicized layoff notification delay ploy, who knew what, and when?
But remember, the Obama administration has no scandals.