News Will past personal issues affect Obama's 2012 campaign?

[DoggerDan]

Sounds like Total got a huge bargain, just around the time U.S. investment firms battened down the hatches on domestic investment.

 

[WhoWee]

Sounds like Total got a huge bargain, just around the time U.S. investment firms battened down the hatches on domestic investment.

I'll label this IMO - given the source.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=46761

"According to the Department of Energy (DOE) website, the CVSR project will create 350 construction jobs during the two-year build and 15 permanent jobs—presumably those are the squeegee men for keeping the panels clean.

Capitol Hill powerbroker Rep. George Miller (D.-Calif.), center, hosted Interior Sec. Kenneth L. Salazar, left, on an Oct. 14, 2010 tour of SunPower's Richmond, Calif., plant. During the tour, Salazar said plants like SunPower's transform renewable energy ideas into reality. One month later, the company announced it had restated its 2008 and 2009 financial filings to correct for unsubstantiated accounting entries.



If $80 million per permanent job seems a little high, even for the current Obama administration, you are correct. In addition to the 350 construction jobs and the 15 squeegee men, there will an as-yet-undetermined number of jobs created building the panels for the CVSR—in Mexicali, Mexico.

The company is looking for a facility of up to 320,000 square feet, where it will build three different solar panel models and its solar roof tiles, according the company’s Aug. 5 statement.

Marty T. Neese, the company's chief operating officer, said, “Establishing our own manufacturing facility in Mexicali means we will be positioned to quickly deliver our high-efficiency, high-reliability solar products to a growing North American solar market.”

Mexicali Mayor Francisco Perez Tejada Padilla said he was thrilled. “Mexicali is rapidly becoming an industrial hub for high-tech companies, offering an educated workforce and a growing manufacturing area,” he said. “We welcome SunPower to our city and are pleased that they have chosen Mexicali to establish its solar panel manufacturing facility.”

The good news for Mexican jobs seekers did not affect the DOE's loan guarantee to SunPower. Hours before the DOE 1705 loan program expired at the end of Fiscal Year 2011 on Sept. 30, the $1.2 billion in loan guarantees was approved for the company."

 

[DoggerDan]

WhoWee, I think we're in agreement, but please, chill, dude, as I feel I'm in Katrina when I'm reading your stuff.

Perhaps that just how much counter-obamination stuff that's out there.

Don't know, though. I prefer to make up my own mind.

 

[WhoWee]

WhoWee, I think we're in agreement, but please, chill, dude, as I feel I'm in Katrina when I'm reading your stuff.

Perhaps that just how much counter-obamination stuff that's out there.

Don't know, though. I prefer to make up my own mind.

Please sit in a comfortable chair with a refreshing beverage and a snack - then read this slowly.

You can't make his stuff up - the last story involves $1.2 Billion in tax payer guarantees to create jobs and establish the US as the solar leader(?). Then we find out a French company acquired them - once the guarantees were in place. Now it's determined there will only be 15 permanent US jobs (squeegeeing panels) and the manufacturing jobs will be created in Mexico at a 320,000 sq ft facility.

 

[WhoWee]

Is the base going to like this move?

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/14/world/africa/africa-obama-troops/

"Obama orders U.S. troops to help chase down African 'army' leader"

""I have authorized a small number of combat-equipped U.S. forces to deploy to central Africa to provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward the removal of Joseph Kony from the battlefield," Obama said in letter sent Friday to House Speaker John Boehner and Daniel Inouye, the president pro tempore of the Senate. Kony is the head of the Lord's Resistance Army.

U.S. military personnel advising regional forces working to target Kony and other senior leaders will not engage Kony's forces "unless necessary for self-defense," Obama said.
"I believe that deploying these U.S. armed forces furthers U.S. national security interests and foreign policy and will be a significant contribution toward counter-LRA efforts in central Africa.""



What sounds better - the "Warlord of Washington" or the "Washington Warlord"?

 

[DoggerDan]

What sounds better - the "Warlord of Washington" or the "Washington Warlord"?

What sounds better - 2,400 killed, 3,400 abducted, or 380,000 displaced?

"According to the State Department, "since 2008 alone, the LRA has killed more than 2,400 people and abducted more than 3,400. The United Nations estimates that over 380,000 people are displaced across the region because of LRA activity."

 

[WhoWee]

What sounds better - 2,400 killed, 3,400 abducted, or 380,000 displaced?

"According to the State Department, "since 2008 alone, the LRA has killed more than 2,400 people and abducted more than 3,400. The United Nations estimates that over 380,000 people are displaced across the region because of LRA activity."

Shouldn't the "UN" be doing more than studying the problem?

From the same link:

"It noted that U.S. Africa Command is "exploring ways to support the military of South Sudan."
In early October 2010, the U.S. military had more than 1,700 troops deployed in sub-Saharan Africa, the Pentagon said. The majority of them -- around 1,380 - were deployed in Djibouti. But U.S. troops had at least a small presence in 33 different nations in sub-Saharan Africa. At this time last year they had nine troops in Uganda."

Let's not forget we also have drone bases in Africa.

 

[WhoWee]

I found this article from December 2010.

http://cncnws.com/blog/2010/12/25/c...feat-central-africas-worst-guerrilla-warlord/

"Can Barack Obama really defeat Central Africa’s worst guerrilla warlord?"

It sounds like another complex situation.

 

[DoggerDan]

Shouldn't the "UN" be doing more than studying the problem?

I don't like the UN sticking their noses in other people's business. For that matter, I don't like the US sticking our noses in other people's business. What I like even less, however, is to stand idly by doing nothing while some power-hungry faction displaces, maims, and murders others, often simply to eliminate the competition.

From the same link:

"It noted that U.S. Africa Command is "exploring ways to support the military of South Sudan."
In early October 2010, the U.S. military had more than 1,700 troops deployed in sub-Saharan Africa, the Pentagon said. The majority of them -- around 1,380 - were deployed in Djibouti. But U.S. troops had at least a small presence in 33 different nations in sub-Saharan Africa. At this time last year they had nine troops in Uganda."

Let's not forget we also have drone bases in Africa.

Looks like we're poised to do something. I don't mind doing something, provided its needed, but only if we do it and leave. If we have to stick around, we didn't do what needed to be done.

 

[WhoWee]

I don't like the UN sticking their noses in other people's business. For that matter, I don't like the US sticking our noses in other people's business. What I like even less, however, is to stand idly by doing nothing while some power-hungry faction displaces, maims, and murders others, often simply to eliminate the competition.

Looks like we're poised to do something. I don't mind doing something, provided its needed, but only if we do it and leave. If we have to stick around, we didn't do what needed to be done.

I think you need to start with an exit strategy in a place like Africa.

Personally, I'd start by organizing agriculture and trying to train a workforce - to build shelters and basic manufacturing/assembly of some type. While some might consider it exploitation of the people - they need an economy of some type.

Anyone that tried to interfere would be given one opportunity to retire as a soldier. If the people see that the focus is different - that a better standard of living is possible (for everyone) - the mindset MIGHT change?

Label this last part IMO - I have a friend that served the Clinton Administration as an Ambassador to a really poor African nation (don't recall the name). Their primary export was artwork - made from things they collected such as butterfly wings. He helped organize exports and the local economy thrived - by their standards.

 

[DoggerDan]

Good points, whowee. And it's somewhat true that areas where the standard of living is increased have a lot more vested (a lot more to loose) if they allow things to go downhill. Generally speaking, they tend to make the effort to keep it.

 

[BobG]

I think you need to start with an exit strategy in a place like Africa.

Personally, I'd start by organizing agriculture and trying to train a workforce - to build shelters and basic manufacturing/assembly of some type. While some might consider it exploitation of the people - they need an economy of some type.

Anyone that tried to interfere would be given one opportunity to retire as a soldier. If the people see that the focus is different - that a better standard of living is possible (for everyone) - the mindset MIGHT change?

Label this last part IMO - I have a friend that served the Clinton Administration as an Ambassador to a really poor African nation (don't recall the name). Their primary export was artwork - made from things they collected such as butterfly wings. He helped organize exports and the local economy thrived - by their standards.

Your exit strategy is to spend years building up their economy so they'll be capable of supporting factories that take away American jobs?

 

[WhoWee]

Your exit strategy is to spend years building up their economy so they'll be capable of supporting factories that take away American jobs?

I imagine some folks would prefer to provide $Billions in Aid to yet another regime - with hopes they would build housing and feed their people - and purchase from US factories? I'd rather help the people become self sufficient and open a new market for free trade with US factories. Let's be realistic, the average family might need a basic (kit type) house with a solid floor and running water (toilet and sink), a light bulb and a portable electric grill.

As for taking years - can you recall a time in your life when starvation wasn't a problem in Africa?

 

[WhoWee]

Does anyone think voters will consider this a good investment in 2012?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...to-company-building-electric-cars-in-finland/

"The Department of Energy is standing by a $529 million loan guarantee to a company building an electric car line in Finland.
A department official, in a lengthy response posted on a government blog Thursday night, confirmed that the company Fisker is assembling its Karma electric car at its "overseas facility."
The response comes after ABC News reported that the Obama administration gave the green light for the company to move the manufacturing to Finland two years after announcing the loan. "

To be fair - J. Carney indicated all of the money will stay in the US. The article mentions a plant in Joe Biden's home state of Delaware and a possible tie to Al Gore - apparently we'll have to wait for more details to emerge?

 

[mheslep]

Does anyone think voters will consider this a good investment in 2012?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...to-company-building-electric-cars-in-finland/

"The Department of Energy is standing by a $529 million loan guarantee to a company building an electric car line in Finland.
A department official, in a lengthy response posted on a government blog Thursday night, confirmed that the company Fisker is assembling its Karma electric car at its "overseas facility."
The response comes after ABC News reported that the Obama administration gave the green light for the company to move the manufacturing to Finland two years after announcing the loan. "

To be fair - J. Carney indicated all of the money will stay in the US. The article mentions a plant in Joe Biden's home state of Delaware and a possible tie to Al Gore - apparently we'll have to wait for more details to emerge?

Fisker absolutely is a deal arranged by Gore. All the money will stay in the US? Unless Finland is kicking in heavily on the deal this is idiotic at best.

 

[DoggerDan]

Fisker absolutely is a deal arranged by Gore.

"Gore?" As in "Al Gore?" What in the world is his involvement with all this?

 

[mheslep]

"Gore?" As in "Al Gore?" What in the world is his involvement with all this?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Al+Gore+Fisker+loan"

 

[WhoWee]

"Gore?" As in "Al Gore?" What in the world is his involvement with all this?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125383160812639013.html

"A tiny car company backed by former Vice President Al Gore has just gotten a $529 million U.S. government loan to help build a hybrid sports car in Finland that will sell for about $89,000."

 

[DoggerDan]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125383160812639013.html

"A tiny car company backed by former Vice President Al Gore has just gotten a $529 million U.S. government loan to help build a hybrid sports car in Finland that will sell for about $89,000."

Why? Can't Finland fund their own business ventures? Or is this merely one Dem doling out favors by padding the income of another? Perhaps in return for financial support? Step 1: Give Gore U.S. Taxpayer Funds. Step 2: Gore gets a ridiculous salary. Step 3: Gore contributes half of his ridiculous salary to Obama's campaign. Net Result: Misuse of government tax dollars to fund one candidate's campaign.

I think I'll write my Congressman about this. If these funds are being funneled through Gore back into Obama's campaign, it's probably an ethics violation.

 

[WhoWee]

Why? Can't Finland fund their own business ventures? Or is this merely one Dem doling out favors by padding the income of another? Perhaps in return for financial support? Step 1: Give Gore U.S. Taxpayer Funds. Step 2: Gore gets a ridiculous salary. Step 3: Gore contributes half of his ridiculous salary to Obama's campaign. Net Result: Misuse of government tax dollars to fund one candidate's campaign.

I think I'll write my Congressman about this. If these funds are being funneled through Gore back into Obama's campaign, it's probably an ethics violation.

I think the funds will be invested into the car programs. I also believe the plant in Joe Biden's home State of Delaware will be retrofitted. I just don't think the venture will succeed as the cars are too expensive.

 

[Proton Soup]

speaking of Biden, i can't help but notice now that the V.P.'s recent rape remarks, in light of the announcement that Iraq troops are coming home, looks really, really bad. so Biden thinks that rapes will go up if we have unemployed soldiers here at home?

 

[WhoWee]

Today's email from the Obama 2012 campaign stated (my bold)

"Now that each and every Senate Republican has vowed to block measures that would create jobs, President Obama is not going to wait for them to rebuild the economy and bring financial security back to the middle class."

Has the President been waiting for Republicans to rebuild the economy?

 

[WhoWee]

Has President Obama changed his mind about accepting funds from special interest groups?

http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/iowa-obama-romney-gop/2011/10/28/id/416122?s=al&promo_code=D5CA-1

"President Barack Obama is getting round his self-imposed ban on accepting campaign donations from registered lobbyists – by accepting it from unregistered lobbyists instead.

A New York Times analysis of the president’s fundraising shows that huge amounts are coming in from at least 15 bundlers who are tied to K Street, but who are not themselves registered.

“Politics as usual has replaced hope and change in politics, policy development, and clearly now fundraising,” Democratic pollster Doug Schoen told Newsmax in the light of the Times piece. “The change we were promised just has not happened.

The Times says there are at least 15 Obama bundlers who could be considered as lobbyists. "

*********
"As a candidate last time round, Obama took the high road and said he would not accept money from lobbyists and would not bring any into his administration. Even now his campaign says it regularly returns checks from registered lobbyists and bars lobbyists from campaign fundraising events.

“We will not take a dime from the special interests. They will not run my party, they will not run the White House and they will not drown out the voice of the American people when I am president of the United States,” he said to a standing ovation during a campaign stop in Bristol, Va. shortly after winning the Democratic nomination."

 

[WhoWee]

Someone once told me if you like behind - you might see ahead. Accordingly, here's a look back to 2009. This article should be the focus of the Presidential campaign - just not sure which Party should run with it?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aF9swlfXBR6o


"Of course, the Clinton budget office never forecast those surpluses. The 1997 reduction in the capital gains tax in conjunction with a stock-market bubble conspired to produce an April tax surprise for several years running.

The surpluses did go a long way toward helping the Democrats shed their label as the party of tax and spend.

President Barack Obama is wasting little time returning his party to its roots.

“He has grand plans and no revenue to pay for them,” says Joe Carson, chief economist at AllianceBernstein.

No revenue? No problem. Taxing the wealthy, and eventually the not-so-wealthy, seems to be the new revenue avenue. In fact, everyone who pays taxes will probably pay more in the near future.

And there’s an increasingly small number that do. An estimated 47 percent of tax filers will pay no income tax in 2009, according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center. That’s perilously close to a majority. When half the population is on the receiving end of government programs and has no skin in the cost, they will encourage their elected representatives to vote “yes” on every new benefit that comes down the pike.

Universal health care? Slap a surtax on the rich. Exact a penalty fee from companies that don’t provide health insurance to workers. And if the promised cost savings don’t materialize? Just increase the surtax on income and capital gains.

Stakeholders vs. Beneficiaries

What about that aging infrastructure in need of an update? Get businesses to pay for it. A bill introduced in the House of Representatives earlier this week would tax corporate profits to pay for “repairing America’s corroded pipes and overburdened sewer systems,” according to Congressman Earl Blumenauer, Democrat of Oregon, the bill’s chief sponsor. “The $10 billion annual fund will create more than 250,000 jobs.”

That would be in addition to the (fill-in-the-number) million jobs Obama says the $787 billion fiscal stimulus will save or create. (The number keeps changing, which doesn’t really matter since the effect can’t be quantified.)

Blumenauer and his colleagues should read what the Congressional Budget Office has to say about the effect of various proposals on jobs.

‘Play or Pay’

When it comes to health care, employers may pay for insurance, but employees bear the cost -- in the form of lower wages, for example. Imposing “play-or-pay requirements” on employers, as the House’s version of the health-care bill does, could have a negative impact on minimum-wage workers because businesses can’t pass the additional cost along, the CBO says.

Raising the cost of doing business is not an incentive to hire.

“It’s not creating jobs,” says Michael Aronstein, president of Marketfield Asset Management in New York. “It’s not creating businesses. As far as I can tell, there’s not a single thing in the thousands of pages of legislation that would encourage anyone to start or expand a business in the U.S.”"

 

[WhoWee]

I saw a bumper sticker that read: Obamanomics - Trickle Up Poverty

 

[WhoWee]

It looks like Nancy Pelosi has another campaign idea for President Obama.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/67539.html

"House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi claimed on Thursday that without the 2009 stimulus bill, the nation’s jobless rate would have spiked to 15 percent.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/67539.html#ixzz1cgScsMa6"

Wouldn't it be nice if politicians had to support their comments?

 

[WhoWee]

President Obama might have to explain his close ties to this failed "Wall Street" firm.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...ama-campaign/2011/11/02/gIQA9w5ogM_story.html

"The bankrupt financial company MF Global, now under federal investigation for possibly misusing clients’ money, is one of the top sources of contributions for President Obama’s reelection, complicating the campaign’s effort to turn public anger at Wall Street into a political advantage.

Employees of the company have given $108,650 to Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee, according to federal records. MF Global’s chairman and chief executive, former New Jersey governor Jon Corzine, has raised at least $500,000 for the campaign and the DNC as a “bundler,” or volunteer fundraiser."

 

[WhoWee]

Here's a story that we might want to watch?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...c-five-unexpired-commissioners_n_1073876.html

""The FEC is itself a national campaign finance scandal," said Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer at the press conference. "The FEC is a dysfunctional agency that refuses to enforce the campaign finance laws. We call on Obama to nominate new commissioners."

In recent years, the six-member commission has grown increasingly polarized and gridlocked, according to data provided by the reform groups. At least four commissioners must vote to approve a new rule. If the FEC splits 3-3, no rule is adopted. Tied votes accounted for nearly 30 percent of all rule-setting votes in 2010, up from 11 percent in 2003.

Tied votes have prevented the commission from adopting rules to govern spending and disclosure by independent groups in the wake of the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling Citizens United v. FEC, which opened the door to unlimited corporate and union spending on independent election activities. The FEC has also enacted regulations that opened holes in disclosure laws. In a 2007 advisory opinion, the commission allowed independent groups running election ads to hide the identity of the donors behind the ads.

The 2007 ruling led undisclosed campaign spending by independent groups to jump from 1 percent of outside-group spending in 2006 to 25 percent in 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The failure of the FEC to issue rules on disclosure by independent groups following the Citizens United decision led that number to jump to 43 percent of all independent spending.

"The Supreme Court has made our campaign finance system bad, but the FEC has made it much, much worse," said Paul S. Ryan, counsel for the Campaign Legal Center. "The president should follow through on his promise and appoint FEC commissioners who will enforce the law."


Wertheimer pointed out that candidate Obama stated in 2007, "As president, I will appoint nominees to the commission who are committed to enforcing our nation's election laws."

"President Obama has failed to meet his public commitment," Wertheimer said. "[He] can no longer sit on the sidelines as the FEC scandal continues to grow.""

 

[Evo]

I don't think anyone reads this thread except you WhoWee based on the number of your posts containing anything with the word obama in it.

 

[WhoWee]

I don't think anyone reads this thread except you WhoWee based on the number of your posts containing anything with the word obama in it.

I guess they're just speechless?