Margaret Thatcher, God Rest Her Soul, NAILED The Essence Of American Liberalism: They’d Rather The Poor Be Poorer Provided The Rich Are Less Rich

Margaret Thatcher, speaking before the House of Commons on November 22, 1990:

Transcript (from the video):

Prime Minister Thatcher: If the hon. Gentleman will just listen, he might hear something that he did not know. The average pensioner now has twice as much to hand on to his children as he did 11 years ago. They are thinking about the future. This massive rise in our living standards reflects the extraordinary transformation of the private sector.

Mr. Hughes: There is no doubt that the Prime Minister, in many ways, has achieved substantial success. There is one statistic, however, that I understand is not however challenged, and that is that, over her 11 years as Prime Minister, the gap between the richest 10 per cent. and the poorest 10 per cent, has widened substantially. At the end of her chapter of British politics, how can she say that she can justify the fact that many people in a constituency such as mine are relatively much poorer, much less well housed and much less well provided for than they were in 1979? Surely she accepts that that is not a record that she or any Prime Minister can be proud of.

Prime Minister Thatcher: Mr Speaker, ALL levels of income are better off than they were in 1979.  But what the honorable member is saying is that he would rather the poor were poorer provided the rich were less rich.  That’s why you will NEVER create the wealth for better social services as we have.  And what a policy!  Yes, he would rather have the poor poorer, provided the rich were less rich.  That is the liberal policy.

Mr. Hughes: No.

Prime Minister Thatcher: Yes, it came out!  He didn’t intend it to, but it did.

[Different liberal socialist Mr. Sillars]: The prime minister is aware that I detest every single one of her domestic policies and I have never hidden that fact.

Prime Minister Thatcher: And I think that the honorable gentleman knows that I have the same contempt for his socialist policies as the people of East Europe who have experienced it.  I think I must have hit the right nail on the head when I pointed out the logic of those policies are they’d rather have the poor poorer.  Once they start to talk about the gap, they’d rather the gap were that [indicating] - down here – not that [indicating], but that [indicating].  So long as the gap is smaller, so long as the gap is smaller, they’d rather have the poor poorer.  You do not create wealth and opportunity that way.  You do not create a property-owning democracy that way.

Margaret Thatcher was EVERY BIT as correct about the liberal American socialists like Obama who are running this country into its grave as she was about the liberal British socialists of her era.

The median wage has PLUMMETED under Obama’s failed presidency.  And as the last jobs report just proved (yet again), the poor have no chance of even being able to FIND a damn job as they are driven out of Obama’s failed economy in despair.  Under Obama, the labor participation rate – the percentage of working age Americans with jobs – there are fewer working Americans today than there have been since 1979.  And it’s actually far, FAR worse than it was in 1979 – because back in 1979, not NEARLY as many women wanted a to have a job as today.

Obama has created a jobs HOLOCAUST for the “poor.”  There is no question Obama has made the poor poorer.

And the fact that his welfare state has absolutely exploded – with food stamp dependency up by 100 percent since Obama took office - is proof of that vile pudding.

She said:

“I came to office with one deliberate intent: to change Britain from a dependent to a self-reliant society — from a give-it-to-me, to a do-it-yourself nation. A get-up-and-go, instead of a sit-back-and-wait-for-it Britain.”

What kind of nation has Obama “fundamentally transformed America” into?  The very kind that Margaret Thatcher sought to deliver her nation FROM.

She nailed Obama right on the head when she summed up the results of his attempt to socialize the American economy by describing the failed results of the British Labour Party:

I was speaking of the Labour party wanting to renationalise privatised industry. Four of the industries that we have privatised are in the top 10 British businesses, but at the very bottom of the list of 1,000 British businesses lie four nationalised industries. Labour’s industries consume the wealth that others create and give nothing back.

That’s exactly what Obama has given us: the nationalized industries of his crony capitalist fascism where only HE and his bureaucrat thugs get to decide who wins and who loses, who gets to keep their money and who gets their money taxed, who succeeds and who fails.

Today Fisker – another of the failed liberal boondoggles that Obama gave half a billion taxpayer dollars to - is beginning the process of filing for bankruptcy after laying of 3/4 of its workforce.

In 2009, when Joe Biden trumpted the Obama half-billion boondoggle loan to Fisker, Joe Biden trumpeted:

“The doubters were wrong about our ability to manufacture.”

No we weren’t, you failed turd.  YOU were wrong.  You were catastrophically wrong and WE WERE COMPLETELY RIGHT JUST AS I PREDICTED WE’D BE COMPLETELY RIGHT.  Just as you were wrong about all of Obama’s other failed boondoggles:

Barack Obama is the Solyndra President.  Well, make that the Solyndra-EverGreen-SpectraWatt-First Solar-Solar Trust-Abound Solar-BrightSource-LSP Energy-Ener1-SunPower-Beacon Power-ECOtality-A123-Uni Solar-Azure Dynamics President.  Not to mention all the other now-bankrupt green energy crony-capitalist businesses that have stolen more than $2 billion dollars of the American people’s money.

And that sum of massive Obama failure has grown massively since I wrote that a year ago – as Fisker alone proves.

Reality simply doesn’t matter to dishonest hypocrite liberals or to their dishonest and hypocritical ideology of liberalism.  There is simply no contact with the real world.  The Word of God enables humans to – at least in part – be able to see the world accurately, as God sees it.  Liberals hate the Word of God and the Judeo-Christian worldview which is based on the Word of God.  Instead, liberals view the world through demonic secular humanist theories such as existentialism, postmodernism and yes, Marxism and its socialist cousin fascism.  They are blind fools leading a blind and foolish world into the heart of darkness.  And they are about to get their way.

It’s not that conservatives have no convincing arguments; it is rather that, between the facts that a) mainstream media propaganda deceitfully distorts the conservative message; and b) we are entering the last days before the Antichrist and the mark of the beast as God has decreed that it is time that the world receive the judgment for its wickedness that it deserves – which is why we have the terrible choice between a Mormon Mitt Romney who believes Jesus Christ is the spirit brother of Lucifer and an Obama who actually IS the spirit brother of Lucifer; c) which results in RINO turds like John McCain, Lindsey Grahem and Mitt Romney being the inarticulate voices of the Republican Party who can’t argue their way out of a wet paper bag on a rainy day.

Todays’ leaders have no courage, no backbone and no clue.  Because they are men and women manufactured by politics rather than men and women shaped by virtue.

Now we are cursed with Barack Hussein Obama, a fool who believes the disease is the cure.  And if his “cure” doesn’t work to plague America with more of his disease.  And then more disease, and still more.

When God damned Europe for its wickedness in the wake of the rise of Stalin and Hitler, there WERE no intelligent voices of opposition who were allowed to rise up and confront the evil and stupidity that were swallowing up the world.  In nation after nation in Europe, you had the dismal choice between an evil, terrible choice and a slightly less evil, terrible choice.  And again and again the most evil and terrible choice was the one that prevailed.

We won’t see your like again, Mrs. Thatcher.  But God bless you for your good work on this earth.  The world desperately needs leaders like you, but they will not rise.  Because the beast is coming – and fools must reign to welcome him and his coming mark.

Enjoy your rest with God in heaven, Iron Lady.  You truly earned it.

Would that we had your like now instead of the God damn America that we have under this failed presidency of a man who is every bit as foolish as the fools you exposed.

Obama Socialist Plans To ‘Make Government Cool Again’ Hits Slight Snag In Wake Of One Giant Pathetic Scandal After Another

Obama in 2008 telling us about the utopia he’s going to create for an America suddenly embracing the mantra “We Are All Socialists Now” to go along with “Yes we can!”

September 11, 2008
Obama plans to ‘make government cool again’
Ben Smith

Barack Obama addressed the wide distaste for government — and the fact that he and John McCain are running against Washington — at the forum on national service at Columbia University.

“Our campaign from the beginning has been about changing government,” he said, recalling some great accomplishments of American government: Civil rights legislation, the interstate highway system, and the National Park system.

Obama would, he said, “transform Washington” and “make government cool again.”

Obama also had some praise for small-town mayors — like, not so long ago, Sarah Palin — who, he said have “some of the toughest jobs in the country. We yak [in the Senate] but they…fill potholes and trim trees and make sure the garbage” is picked up.

Why was had there been such a “wide distaste for government”???  Because government taste like bovine fecal matter in giant quantities shoved down your throat.  And then you’re forced to pay for the meal at about a hundred times the price that the private sector would have charged for the dining privilege.  In a nutshell.

And, hey, Obama, boy have you ever changed government: you’ve made it bigger and more expensive and more “distasteful” than it has EVER BEEN IN THE HISTORY OF THE REPUBLIC.  You set out to “fundamentally transform America,” and you’ve done it.  Good job.  Pat yourself on the back.  Smoke a cigarette.  Your work destroying America is nearly done.

The GSA scandal gives us more than massive waste and fraud; it gives us pictures and videos of big government union workers putting on clown suits and flipping off the taxpayers.  The Secret Service proves that even the most trusted workers in government have totally broken down under the Obama Culture.  And we’re supposed to want to “make government cool again” so we can force the American people to pay for more of the same???

Under Obama, “In Nothing We Trust.”  Under Obama, we’re looking at a scandal of massive green boondoggles of which Solyndra is just the tiny tip of a giant iceberg.  Under Obama, we’re watching the GSA scandal openly mock the taxpayers more and more.  Under Obama, we’re looking at pure evil with the Fast and Furious scandal in which Obama put weapons in the hands of drug cartel murderers and let them murder American citizens with them.  Under Obama, we’ve had example after example of the breakdown of the US military over which Obama is commander-in-chief.  And there are more of them coming out every day now, aren’t there?  Under Obama, things are getting beyond wicked.

But Obama wants more and more and more and bigger and bigger and bigger government that will seize and confiscate more and more and more of the smaller and smaller minority of Americans who actually pay any federal income taxes and pay for this ungodly monster.  Federal workers being paid more than $150,000 a year have DOUBLED under Obama.  And there’s plenty more where that came from.

Obama has massively increased the size of government even as he has gutted military spending:

I just got through writing about just a tiny fraction of all the Obama scandals that are going on right now.  The man is a firehose of pure evil and America is now flooded.

Recent Developments Continue To Prove The ‘Liberals Are Dishonest Weasels’ Theory

Tell me that Democrats care about the poor while Republicans only care about the rich and I’ll say, “Jon Corzine.”  And that’s all I really need to say, given what Corzine did (where’s that $1.6 billion you “lost,” Jon?) and given this picture of a pair of genuine weasels:

Oh, and all the quotes from Barack Obama and Joe Biden about Jon Corzine that go with that picture:

This is what Barry Hussein recently had to say about this rat bastard:

• “You’ve had an honorable man, a decent man, an honest man, at the helm of this state. … He’s fought for what matters to ordinary folks.”

• “People…say, ‘You know, I was saving up all my life. …. Suddenly, because of this financial crisis, I may have to go back to work.’ “

• “Jon knows these are challenging times. This is why he got into public service. He didn’t do it for the paycheck.”

• “This crisis…came about because of the same theories, the same lax regulation, the same trickle-down economics that the other guy’s party has been peddling for years.”

• “Jon’s got the mop and he’s cleaning up after somebody else’s mess.”

• “One of the things you’ve got in Jon Corzine is somebody who tells it to you straight,” Mr Obama said.

Do you notice how Obama – that vile weasel – used Jon Corzine to demonize Republicans? Obama was actually dishonestly saying that Republicans created a mess, and that this quivering piece of slime Jon Corzine was the guy cleaning up that mess.

Let me just digress for a moment and state that Barack Obama is the most divisive, most dishonest, most hateful, most demonizing, fearmongering LIAR in American history.

Barack Obama credited Jon Corzine as the force behind his $862 billion stimulus:

“Jon’s a leader who’s been called to govern in some extraordinary times,” Obama said while campaigning for Corzine in 2009. “Jon Corzine wasn’t just the first governor to pass an economic recovery plan for his state. He was an ally with the Obama administration in helping us develop a national recovery plan.”

And here’s what Joe Biden – again representing the Obama administration – said about Jon Corzine – while he was pointing out how team Obama repeatedly asked Corzine for advice and trusted him implicitly:

“I literally picked up the phone and called Jon Corzine and said Jon, what do you think we should do,” Biden said. “The reason we called Jon is that we knew that he knew about the economy, about world markets, how we had to respond, unlike almost anyone we knew. It was because he had been in the pit — because he had been in the furnace. And we trusted his judgment.”

Again:

“Way back in the transition period, before we were sworn in, when Barack Obama and I were literally sitting at a desk in a high rise in Chicago, beginning the plan on how we would try to get this economy out of a ditch, literally, the first guy I called was Jon Corzine. It’s not a joke. It’s not a joke. First of all, he’s the smartest guy I know in terms of the economy and on finance, and I really mean that.”

That’s right, Jon Corzine was a trusted adviser to Obama and Biden. That’s why our economy is in such great shape now. And the guy who helped Obama put together the massively failed stimulus also just put together the fourth largest bankruptcy in American history as he put his liberalism to work at MF (which stands for “Managed Futures”) Global and helped himself to other people’s money.

Now the smartest guy Obama and Biden know is saying, “I don’t know where the money went.” You know, even though that was pretty much his whole JOB to know.

It bookends nicely with Obama going to Solyndra and saying – you know, just before Solyndra collapsed with more than half a billion of your money thrown into it:

 ”Companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future.”

And of course Obama was right: a more “prosperous future” for China because we’re going to keep paying the interest on that $535 million Obama gave to his crony capitalist buddy who raised funds for him.  And I’ll bet that Obama crony George Kaiser will be giving Obama something-something from that $535 billion stash in the form of campaign contributions.  After all, that’s what “fairness” is all about, isn’t it?

Here’s the latest story in the saga of the poster boy for the fact that everything that liberals say about caring about the little people while Republicans only care about the rich load of crap:

Corzine Corzined - Congressional Panel Finds Former MF Global CEO Ordered JPM Fund Transfer
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/23/2012 16:13 -0400

Then only thing that could top today’s epic market insanity and hilarity, would be that Corzine is himself about to be Corzined. And just released from Bloomberg:

• MF GLOBAL’S CORZINE ORDERED FUNDS MOVED TO JPMORGAN, MEMO SAYS
• CORZINE’S `DIRECT INSTRUCTIONS’ CITED BY CONGRESSIONAL PANEL
• MF GLOBAL TRANSFER WAS USED TO COVER OVERDRAFT, PANEL SAYS
• MF GLOBAL FINDINGS CITED IN MEMO OBTAINED BY BLOOMBERG NEWS

And so we can now add perjury to felony embezzlement. Which means we now have to wait to find just which MF’er (and JPM’er) will be given a promise of untold millions if they only get Fab Tourre’d for a few years, and spend 5-7 in minimum security state prison instead of brave Jonny.

From Bloomberg:

Jon S. Corzine, MF Global Holding Ltd.’s chief executive officer, gave “direct instructions” to transfer $200 million from a customer fund account to meet an overdraft in one of the brokerage’s JPMorgan Chase & Co. accounts in London, according to an e-mail sent by a firm executive. 

Edith O’Brien, a treasurer for the firm, said in an e-mail sent the afternoon of Oct. 28, three days before the company collapsed, that the transfer of the funds was “Per JC’s direct instructions,” according to a copy of a memo drafted by congressional investigators and obtained by Bloomberg News.

O’Brien’s internal e-mail came as the New York-based broker found intraday credit lines limited by JPMorgan, the firm’s clearing bank as well as one of its custodian banks for segregated customer funds, according to the memo, which was prepared for a March 28 House Financial Services subcommittee hearing on the firm’s collapse. O’Brien is scheduled to testify after being subpoenaed this week.

“Over the course of that week, MF Global’s financial position deteriorated, but the firm represented to its regulators and self-regulatory organizations that its customers’segregated funds were safe,” said the memo, written by Financial Services Committee staff and sent to lawmakers.

Vinay Mahajan, global treasurer of MF Global Holdings, wrote an e-mail on Oct. 28 that said JPMorgan was “holding up vital business in the U.S. as a result” of the overdrawn account, which had to be “fully funded ASAP,” according to the memo. 

O’Brien Letter

Barry Zubrow, JPMorgan’s chief risk officer, called Corzine to seek assurances that the funds belonged to MF Global and not customers. JPMorgan drafted a letter to be signed by O’Brien to ensure that MF Global was complying with rules requiring customers’ collateral to be segregated. The letter was never returned to JPMorgan, the memo said.

The money transferred came from a segregated customer account, according to congressional investigators. Segregated accounts can include customer money and excess company funds.

Corzine testified that he never intended a misuse of customer funds at MF Global, and that he doesn’t know where client funds went.

“I did not instruct anyone to lend customer funds to anyone,” Corzine told lawmakers in December.

Steven Goldberg, a spokesman for Corzine, declined immediate comment.

Oops. Of course, in Jonny’s defense there was no perjury here. The truth was merely rehypothecated.

Just remember these truths every time a Democrat repeats their tired class warfare lies.  It’s every bit as much of a lie when a Democrat says them as it was when a Stalinist said pretty much the same damn things.

Update 4/23/12: Just to document how incredibly corrupt Obama is, Jon Corzine is STILL bundling campaign money for him.

Shameless Demagogue-in-Chief Obama Actually Blames GOP For Solyndra EVEN THOUGH ALMOST 100% OF REPUBLICANS VOTED AGAINST IT

Barack Hussein Obama is the most pathologically dishonest weasel who has ever lived in or even VISITED the White House:

Good Grief: Obama Attempts To Include Republicans In Blame For Solyndra
March 22, 2012 – 2:06 pm

No, seriously, he really tries this

(Fox News) While making his push for solar, Obama explained to a reporter for National Public Radio that the blame for Solyndra was bipartisan and not the fault of the Obama Democrats “per se.”

“Congress, Democrats and Republicans, put together a loan guarantee program because they understood historically that when you get new industries, it’s easy to get money for new startups,” Obama said. “But if you want to take them to scale, often there is a lot of risk involved and what the loan guarantee program was designed to do was to help start-up companies get to scale.”

Except, as usual, Obama has his facts 100% wrong

The 2009 stimulus package that provided the funding for a loan of $527 million for Solyndra, which subsequently defaulted, got zero Republican votes in the House and three Republican votes in the Senate — Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and former Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, who switched parties two months after the vote. There was no Republican input on the structuring of the energy loan program and the specific loan to Solyndra was a Democratic job from start to finish.

Even ABC News’ Devin Dwyer calls BS on this, reiterating the above paragraph, and adding

During a May 2010 visit to Solyndra, Obama explicitly credited the Recovery Act with supporting the company’s early success.

The man is shameless.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

It just makes you shake your head.  And then hang it in shame that this kind of lying turd is actually our president.

Democrats continue to repeat the outright and outrageous lie that the Bush administration was responsible for this fiasco.  Here are the facts on that:

The bottom line remains that the Bush Administration did not approve the Solyndra loan guarantee. And just before they headed out of town, Bush officials ordered the project back to the drawing board.

Democrats argue the Energy Department first received the loan request in December 2006. By January 2009, it was still under consideration. That month, the department’s Loan Guarantee Credit Committee put the project on hold.

In a terse one-page memo, dated Jan. 9, 2009, the committee noted that the “apparent haste in recommending the project meant that certain LGPO (Loan Guarantee Program Office) credit procedures were not adhered to.”

It further stated that: “While the project appears to have merit, there are several areas where the information presented did not thoroughly support a finding that the project is ready to be approved at this time.” It then cited four areas of concern.

First was the lack of any “independent market study addressing long-term prospects for this specific company.” An independent credit assessment had “raised the issue of obsolescence in marketing this project.” Obsolescence? That’s never a good word to hear in a product marketing study.

Second, it noted that the committee had never seen a supposed sales agreement the company had for its product even though an unnamed “outside legal advisor” had. In other words, the committee only had vague assurances that there was even a buyer for the product.

Third, it noted, “There are questions regarding the nature and the strength of parent guarantee for completion of the project.” In other words, the committee wasn’t convinced the project would even be finished.

Fourth and finally, it vaguely noted “concern” over production start “scale-up” at a second Solyndra facility.

The memo concludes by saying “the number of issues unresolved makes a recommendation for approval premature at this time” and sent the project back to the LGPO for “further development of information.”

That strikes Capital Hill as a pretty damning — not to mention prescient — analysis of the Solyndra loan proposal. The loan wasn’t ready and Bush’s Energy Department wasn’t going to approve it. If Solyndra had proved to be a success, green energy fans would today probably be claiming the Bush White House had dragged its feet and endangered the project.

At the very least it shows that the Bush administration was doing the “due diligence” that DeGette questioned.

Bush did everything but drive a stake through the Solyndra loan guarantee’s heart in January of 2009.  His administration identified not one but four compelling reasons why the loan project should NOT go ahead.  But by March of 2009 – in complete abdication of consideration of any of the concerns the Bush administration identified – that loan was moving full speed ahead by Obama and ONLY by Obama.

As Gasoline Prices Soar Out Of Control, Yet ANOTHER Obama Energy Boondoggle Pisses Away Taxpayer Money By Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars

Barack Obama giving away $2 billion in stimulus money on July 4, 2010:

“In fact, today, I’m announcing that the Department of Energy is awarding nearly $2 billion in conditional commitments to two solar companies.

The first is Abengoa Solar, a company that has agreed to build one of the largest solar plants in the world right here in the United States. After years of watching companies build things and create jobs overseas, it’s good news that we’ve attracted a company to our shores to build a plant and create jobs right here in America. In the short term, construction will create approximately 1,600 jobs in Arizona. What’s more, over 70 percent of the components and products used in construction will be manufactured in the USA, boosting jobs and communities in states up and down the supply chain. Once completed, this plant will be the first large-scale solar plant in the U.S. to actually store the energy it generates for later use – even at night. And it will generate enough clean, renewable energy to power 70,000 homes.

The second company is Abound Solar Manufacturing, which will manufacture advanced solar panels at two new plants, creating more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs. A Colorado plant is already underway, and an Indiana plant will be built in what’s now an empty Chrysler factory. When fully operational, these plants will produce millions of state-of-the-art solar panels each year.

Obama’s “investment” today:

Earlier today I mentioned Energy Secretary Chu’s statement to Congress that the administration didn’t care about lowering gas prices, just pushing alternative energy. Now we have the latest failure as part of that scheme, Abound Solar Manufacturing, has announced it will lay off 70% of its workforce. The company received a $400 million loan guarantee through the Obama stimulus.

Oh, and by the way, Abound got that $400 million loan even though it was obviously a huge credit risk:

A month before Abound Solarannounced it would be laying off nearly half its workforce, Congressional Republicans alerted the U.S. Department of Energy that they had questions about the decision to loan the Colorado firm $400 million.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform asked Energy Secretary Steven Chu to explain how the solar panel manufacturer had qualified for the loan after the ratings firm Fitch had determined the company would make a “highly speculative” investment.

“Fitch describes Abound as lagging in technology relative to its competitors, failing to achieve stated efficiency targets, and expecting that Abound will suffer from increasing commoditization and pricing pressures,” wrote Rep. Darrell Issa, R.-California, the committee chairman. “DOE’s willingness to fund Abound, despite these concerns, calls into question the merits of this loan guarantee.”

Obama is demonizing oil companies (you know, the people who are the only reason ordinary Americans are able to get into their cars and drive somewhere) while he continues to give away billions of dollars to his crony capitalist fascist friends at the useless green energy companies.  Oh, and he’s demonizing the $4 billion in tax breaks to oil companies that keep this country going while he is proposing to give away $5 billion more to green energy that produces virtually nothing.

That should seriously piss you off, because gas prices – you know, the stuff that the oil companies Obama demonizes produce – have more than DOUBLED under this failed president’s failed policies:

The day Barack Obama took office, the average national price of gasoline was $1.84 a gallon.

As of today, March 1, 2012, the average national price of gasoline is $3.74 a gallon.

Oh, and gasoline may very well hit $5 a gallon by Memorial Day.

While even Bill Clinton is urging the Failure-in-Chief to “embrace” the Keystone Oil Pipeline that Obama has refused to alllow even though it wouldn’t have required ONE PENNY in taxpayer money.

Beyond Solyndra – which devoured more than half of a BILLION dollars in taxpayer money before going completely bankrupt – there have been many other massive Obama failures.

Just a couple:

Green energy company given federal stimulus funds lays off 125 workers, gives pay raise to executives
Published February 26, 2012 | FoxNews.com

An electric car battery company reportedly has laid off 125 employees since receiving $390 million in government subsidies, but is still handing out big pay raises to company executives.

A123 systems, which was touted as a stimulus “success story” by former Gov. Jennifer Granholm, D-Mich., had a net loss of $172 million through the first three quarters of 2011, according to the Washington Examiner’s “Beltway Confidential” blog, citing a report from the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

A123′s primary customer, Fisker Automotive, is also struggling financially. “Yet, this month A123’s Compensation Committee approved a $30,000 raise for [Chief Financial Officer David] Prystash just days after Fisker Automotive announced the U.S. Energy Department had cut off what was left of its $528.7 million loan it had previously received.”

This month has seen significant pay boosts for other A123 executives, as well, including vice presidents Robert Johnson and Jason Forcier.

The raises were reported by the company in its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the Mackinac report.

“It looks highly suspicious,” Paul Chesser, associate fellow for the National Legal & Policy Center, told Mackinac. “It looks like they are trying to pad their top people’s wallets in case something really bad happens.”

Click to read the Washington Examiner blog.

Click to read the Mackinac Center for Public Policy report.

And far, FAR worse:

Obama Gave Billions to Green Energy Companies with Ties to His Administration and 2008 Campaign
Posted by Jim Hoft on Thursday, February 16, 2012, 1:13 PM

The RNC released this infographic today showing that billions in taxpayer dollars were were given to firms with close ties to the Obama Administration.

The Washington Post reported:

Overall, the Post found that $3.9 billion in federal grants and financing flowed to 21 companies backed by firms with connections to five Obama administration staffers and advisers.

Obama’s program to invest federal funds in start-up companies — and the failure of some of those companies — is becoming a rallying cry for opponents in the presidential race. Mitt Romney has promised to focus on Obama’s “record” as a “venture capitalist.” And in ads and speeches, conservative groups and the Republican candidates are zeroing in on the administration’s decision to extend $535 million to the now-shuttered solar firm Solyndra and billions of dollars more to clean-tech start-ups backed by the president’s political allies.

White House officials stress that staffers and advisers with venture capital ties did not make funding decisions related to these companies. But e-mails released in a congressional probe of Obama’s clean-tech program show that staff and advisers with links to venture firms informally advocated for some of those companies.

David Gold, a venture capitalist and critic of Obama’s investments in clean tech, said that even if staffers had been removed from the final decision-making, they had the kind of inside access to exert subtle influence.

“To believe those quiet conversations don’t happen in the hallways — about a project being in a certain congressman’s district or being associated with a significant presidential donor, is naive,” said Gold, who once worked at the Office of Management and Budget. “When you’re putting this kind of pressure on an organization to make decisions on very big dollars, there’s increased likelihood that political connections will influence things.”

Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera said the companies won awards based on merit, not political connections. He said the staffers and advisory board members reviewed by the Post had no role in funding decisions, nor did they have any personal financial stake in the companies. One of those administration advisers had first been appointed to his position by the Bush administration, LaVera said…

…Thousands of agency and White House e-mails released as part of the Solyndra investigation show that venture capitalists who held advisory roles with the Energy Department were given access to Obama’s top advisers.

Read the whole thing. It will make you ill.

Obama is selling this country out even while he works to implode it by starving us of energy while spending us into bankruptcy.

CFL Bulbs, The Bogus Bad Science Behind Them And A Democrat Party That Swims In A Sea Of Hypocrisy And Deceit

Utterly bogus claims in the name of “science” from the same left that routinely demonizes conservatives as being enemies of science.  To be a liberal is to be a quintessential hypocrite; hypocrisy defines the left; it is the sine qua non without which liberalism could not exist; hypocrisy is the ocean that liberal fish swim in.  And hypocrisy is so completely all-consuming for the left that they can’t even see it all around them.

Other than that, they are just wrong.

Yesterday I posted an article that demonstrates how utterly and completely UNSCIENTIFIC global warming “scientists” are.  It is simply amazing to watch these pathological liars play games with the truth while somehow never losing their self-righteous chutzpah.

Btw, the first article of the series referred to below is available here. And I accessed it from a very cool site on “climate change” here.

CFL bulbs: shedding light on misleading performance claims
Kirk Myers, Seminole County Environmental News Examiner
January 12, 2012

This article, the second in a series, focuses on the misleading performance claims surrounding the “more energy efficient” compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs now replacing traditional incandescent bulbs. These potentially harmful mercury-filled lamps (see my previous column describing the dangers) are being forced on consumers by the U.S. congress with support from the Green Lobby and light-bulb manufacturers like GE, Sylvania and Phillips. These and other manufacturers stand to make huge profits selling the more expensive CFLs (more on that issue in my next column).

There is a growing body of evidence undermining claims of the EPA, environmental lobby and light bulb manufacturers touting the performance advantages of mercury-laced CFL bulbs.

Exaggerated lifespan

Real-world reports from the home front show that the claimed extended lifespan of CFLs is often greatly exaggerated. There is ample data indicating that the frequent switching on and off of CFLs greatly shortens their life. A study by H. Sterling Burnett, senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, and co-author Amanda Berg concludes:

“Unfortunately, except under a fairly narrow range of circumstances, CFLs are less efficient than advertised. Manufacturers claim the average life span of a CFL bulb is 10,000 hours. However, in many applications the life and energy savings of a CFL are significantly lower.

“Applications in which lighting is used only briefly (such as closets, bathrooms, motion detectors and so forth) will cause CFL bulbs to burn out as quickly as regular incandescent bulbs . . . When initially switched on, CFLs may provide as little as 50 percent to 80 percent of their rated light output and can take up to three minutes to reach full brightness.”

According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, Pacific Gas & Electric originally estimated the useful life of CFL bulbs at 9.4 years. But based on real-world results, the company was forced to lower its estimate to 6.3 years, meaning that it had overstated bulb life by 49 percent. “The early burn-out rate, along with several other factors, meant that the actual energy savings were 73 percent less than the 1.7 billion kilowatt hours projected by PG&E,” the Journal reported.

Less bright, more dim with age

As many consumers have noticed, CFL bulbs grow dimmer as they age. In a 2003-2004 study, the U.S. Department of Energy reported that one-fourth of CFLs, after only 40 percent of their rated service life, no longer produced at their rated output.

And according to Wikipedia: ”CFLs produce less light later in their lives than when they are new. The light output decay is exponential, with the fastest losses being soon after the lamp is first used. By the end of their lives, CFLs can be expected to produce 70-80% of their original light output.”

After conducting its own tests on bulbs from several manufacturers, The Sunday Telegraph in London “found that under normal conditions, using a single lamp to light a room, an 11W low-energy CFL produced only 58 percent of the illumination of an ‘equivalent’ 60W bulb – even after a 10-minute ‘warm-up.’”

The European Commission, which led the effort to ban incandescent bulbs in Europe, said that claims by manufacturers that CFL’s shine as brightly as old-fashioned bulbs are “not true.”

Posted on its website for consumers was the warning that “exaggerated claims are often made on the packaging about the light output of compact fluorescent lamps.”

Higher heating bills

Go-Green advocates like to complain about the fact that 90 percent of the energy from incandescent lights is given off as heat, with only 10 percent providing illumination. But they ignore one important fact: The extra heat given off during the winter months can actually lower energy bills.

According to a study by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, “The heat of incandescent lights – more than 341 Btu per bulb per hour – can help to warm a room. Therefore, if the cost of electricity is low relative to the cost of home heating fuel, there may be an economic case for changing to incandescent bulbs in colder seasons.”

In other words, on a cold day when you’re running your electric heater, it makes sense to flip on all those incandescent heat sources. Of course, the contribution of incandescent bulbs to lower heating bills is conveniently missing from pro-CFL literature.

Unsuitable for outdoor lighting

What about the use of CFLs for outdoor lighting? Forget it. Most do not operate well in low temperatures, a performance shortfall that makes them virtually useless for home-security lighting, including as lights in motion detectors. By signing the incandescent bulb’s death warrant, congress has effectively rendered useless outdoor lighting systems that keep away intruders and discourage home break-ins.

Myth of mercury reduction

One of the most misleading arguments advanced in defense of CFLs is the assertion that they reduce harmful mercury levels (a dubious proposition given that the bulbs themselves are laced with mercury).

Case in point: In a letter to the Wall Street Journal in December, CFL advocate Nicole Lederer claimed that “coal-fired power plants produce about half of all mercury.”

In his Jan. 5 response, Charles Battig of Scientists and Engineers for Energy and Environment-Virginia called the statement “scientifically vacuous and misleading.”

Battig cited data from an op-ed (“The Myth of Killer Mercury” by Willie Soon and Paul Driessen) that broke down mercury contributions as follows: “U.S. coal-fired plants, about 41-48 tons per year; forest fires, about 44 tons per year; Chinese power plants, 400 tons per year, while recurring geological events such as volcanoes and geysers emit 9,000-10,000 tons per year.”

“With these missing pieces of information, wrote Battig, the U.S. power plant contribution of mercury is closer to a 0.5% value than the “half of all mercury” claim by Ms. Lederer.”

Battig then offered this advice:

“Would that Ms. Lederer and the Environmental Entrepreneurs expend an equal amount of environmental anguish over placing compact fluorescent lamp bulbs indoors in homes, schools and factories. These mercury-containing, stealth-pollution bulbs bring the mercury threat right into your living room and nursery.”

No good reason for switchover

The fact is there is no good reason for consumers – even energy-conscious go-green enthusiasts – to replace their old incandescent bulbs with the much-overhyped and potentially dangerous CFL lamps. The sole beneficiaries of the forced switchover are light bulb manufacturers who stand to make huge profits selling CFL bulbs whose shelf price has been artificially lowered (but still is higher than incandescent bulbs) through hefty subsidies paid to them by taxpayers.

In light of the facts, the switchover to CFL bulbs has become a real consumer turn-off.

Think about all the lies and bogus promises that accompanied the Democrat Party forcing you to buy CFL light bulbs because they love fascism.  Think about the complete piece of crap a.k.a. the Chevy Volt and the Obama administration spending billions to ram it down our throats.  Think about Solyndra and the $10 billion train wreck of high speed rail and think about just how BAD Democrat governance truly is.

Democrats have been caught red-handed handing BILLIONS of the American peoples’ money to their leftwing special interests.  Companies like Solyndra and GE (the company that benefitted most from the Democrat Party forcing you to buy CFLs whether you wanted to or not) and the boondoggles that crony capitalist fascist Democrats hand them are a dime a dozen.  And then let me say two words - Fannie Mae - to point out just how truly dangerous these dirty rotten scoundrels truly are.

And then vote Republican while you’ve still got a country to vote for.

P.S. Another good site on bad science and the CFL boondoggle is located here.

The Obama Navy Illustrates Why America Is Sinking: PC Navy Buying Biofuel At $16 A Gallon

In Obama’s God damn America we do truly breathtakingly stupid things and then keep doing them until we collapse.  And then of course we can also add a healthy mixture of Obama’s crony capitalist fascism:

Navy buys biofuel for $16 a gallon
posted at 7:00 pm on December 11, 2011 by J.E. Dyer

This is going to help the Defense Department weather looming budget cuts, for sure. Teaming up with the Department of Agriculture (which has a cheery Rotary Club ring to it), the Navy has purchased 450,000 gallons of biofuel for about $16 a gallon, or about 4 times the price of its standard marine fuel, JP-5, which has been going for under $4 a gallon.

You won’t be surprised to learn that a member of Obama’s presidential transition team, T. J. Glauthier, is a “strategic advisor” at Solazyme, the California company that is selling a portion of the biofuel to the Navy. Glauthier worked – shock, shock – on the energy-sector portion of the 2009 stimulus bill.

The Navy sale isn’t Solazyme’s first trip to the public trough, of course. The company got a $21.8 million grant from the 2009 stimulus package.

Solazyme’s partner in the biofuel sale is Dynamic Fuels, a Louisiana company owned jointly by Tyson Foods and Tulsa-based Syntroleum. Tyson and Syntroleum are distinguished by having profitable lines of business that do not rely on government grants to unprofitable “green” projects. This does not make their biofuel product price-competitive with fossil fuels, however. (They were induced to develop biofuel manufacturing processes by a combination of subsidies and tax breaks.)

The Dynamic Fuels plant was opened for business in Geismar, LA in 2010, becoming by far the largest biofuels plant in North America – and reportedly, in combination with a plant in Finland, a producer of 94% of the world’s biofuels. This is great boosterism stuff, but the biofuels produced by Dynamic Fuels are still considerably more expensive than the fossil-fuel alternative. Dynamic Fuels has begun supplying aviation biofuel to KLM, the Dutch flag carrier, but of course, the use of more-expensive biofuels by commercial carriers has to be subsidized by governments.

If governments stopped subsidizing biofuels, their artificial “profitability” would disappear overnight. Price-wise, they can’t compete with fossil fuels. The day may come when they can, but subsidizing them while they don’t is not a method with any record of success for encouraging price efficiency. What it does instead is create languishing public dependencies and tremendous opportunities for cronyism, as demonstrated in the Solyndra scandal.

As the Institute for Energy Research article (top link) indicates, the US has enormous reserves of both conventional and unconventional oil and natural gas resources. Opening them up for exploitation would, among other things, ensure that the US armed forces could buy cheaper fuel – cheaper than today’s prices – produced in the USA. At a time when federal debt is spiraling and the Defense Department is facing budget cuts that are guaranteed to gut the fighting forces and render them ineffective, it seems to border on insane to eschew a ready, significantly cheaper alternative and require the armed services to quadruple what they pay for fuel as a proof of concept – apparently with the idea that the forces should buy more of the 4-times-as-expensive fuel. This is, after all, our national security we’re talking about.

While Obama is making the Navy shoot itself in both feet by buying fuel that costs FOUR TIMES what they need to spend, he is simultaneously demanding that the military’s budget be gutted by $600 billion – AFTER he already gutted it $450 billion the year before.

And to “pay for” forcing the Navy to purchase fuel that costs four times more than what they had been buying, Obama is going to lay off more than 3,000 valuable mid-level sailors who make up the heart of our armed forces.

Hopefully all that biofuel is for ships with names like “The USS Dodo Bird.” Because that’s the way we’re going under this president’s leadership. Or maybe the “USS Teapot Dome” in honor of Obama’s in-your-face blatant corruption.

Obama Corrupt With YOUR Money: 80% Of DOE Boondoggle Loans Went To Obama Donors

This is what political corruption looks like:

Report: 80% of DOE Green Energy Loans Went to Obama Backers
Lachlan Markay
November 14, 2011 at 10:43 am

A new book by Hoover Institution fellow Peter Schweizer details the startling extent of the cronyism that has pervaded President Obama’s “green jobs” push. According to Schweizer, 4 out of every 5 renewable energy companies backed by the Energy Department was “run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers.”

Those companies’ “political largesse is probably the best investment they ever made in alternative energy,” Schweizer explains. “It brought them returns many times over.”

Such is the inevitable consequence of large government interventions in private markets. Leaving aside the losses associated with transfers of funds from self-sustaining industries to ones that rely on government support, such interventions also encourage unproductive business activities by making “subsidy suckling” far more profitable than run-of-the-mill business expansions or product improvements.

Doug Ross spotted the relevant excerpt of Schweizer’s book (h/t Ben Domenech’s Transom):

When President-elect Obama came to Washington in late 2008, he was outspoken about the need for an economic stimulus to revive a struggling economy… After he was sworn in as president, he proclaimed that taxpayer money would assuredly not be doled out to political friends…

…But an examination of grants and guaranteed loans offered by just one stimulus program run by the Department of Energy, for alternative-energy projects, is stunning. The so-called 1705 Loan Guarantee Program and the 1603 Grant Program channeled billions of dollars to all sorts of energy companies…

…In the 1705 government-backed-loan program [alone], for example, $16.4 billion of the $20.5 billion in loans granted as of Sept. 15 went to companies either run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers—individuals who were bundlers, members of Obama’s National Finance Committee, or large donors to the Democratic Party. The grant and guaranteed-loan recipients were early backers of Obama before he ran for president, people who continued to give to his campaigns and exclusively to the Democratic Party in the years leading up to 2008. Their political largesse is probably the best investment they ever made in alternative energy. It brought them returns many times over.

…The Government Accountability Office has been highly critical of the way guaranteed loans and grants were doled out by the Department of Energy, complaining that the process appears “arbitrary” and lacks transparency. In March 2011, for example, the GAO examined the first 18 loans that were approved and found that none were properly documented. It also noted that officials “did not always record the results of analysis” of these applications. A loan program for electric cars, for example, “lacks performance measures.” No notes were kept during the review process, so it is difficult to determine how loan decisions were made. The GAO further declared that the Department of Energy “had treated applicants inconsistently in the application review process, favoring some applicants and disadvantaging others.” The Department of Energy’s inspector general, Gregory Friedman, … has testified that contracts have been steered to “friends and family.”

…These programs might be the greatest—and most expensive—example of crony capitalism in American history. Tens of billions of dollars went to firms controlled or owned by fundraisers, bundlers, and political allies, many of whom—surprise!—are now raising money for Obama again.

Keep in mind, Obama was actually WARNED that his Solyndra loan that cost the American people more than HALF A BILLION DOLLARS was illegal.  And the disgrace to the White House pushed it through anyways.  From the Washington Post:

The e-mails show that Mary Miller, an assistant Treasury secretary, wrote to Jeffrey D. Zients, deputy OMB director, expressing concern. She said that the deal could violate federal law because it put investors’ interests ahead of taxpayers’ and that she had advised that it should be reviewed by the Justice Department.

“To our knowledge that never happened,” Miller wrote in a Aug. 17, 2011, memo to the OMB.

In February, the restructuring was approved by Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

Obama is all over the Solyndra debacle.  Just as is the wealthy donor who gave Obama thousands so he could get HALF A BILLION DOLLARS.

Obama is a corrupt thug who is using fascist crony capitalism to bleed America dry before it collapses.

[Update, 11/16/2011]: The examples of Obama’s liberal corruption and fascist crony capitalism never end.  Here’s another story about Robert Kennedy Jr.’s company scoring a $1.4 billion taxpayer bailout.  It must be nice to be a liberal fascist when a liberal fascist thug is in power.

[Update, a little bit later on 11/16]: And when I say there’s no end to this Obama thug crony capitalist fascist crap, I MEAN THERE’S NO END.

Obama Gives Company $529 Million To Build Cars – In FINLAND. And It Gets BETTER; This Is Another Solyndra!

American jobs suck and the United States should be funding union jobs that benefit “the world” rather than helping the American people.  And throwing away half a billion dollars in American taxpayer money to fund green jobs boondoggles on the other side of the Atlantic is perfectly fine.

That’s not my opinion; that’s Barack Obama’s opinion, according to ABC News:

Car Company Gets U.S. Loan, Builds Cars In Finland
In Billion-Dollar Gamble on Tesla and Fisker, Some Worry About A Second Solyndra
By MATTHEW MOSK, BRIAN ROSS and RONNIE GREENE
ABC NEWS and iWATCH NEWS
Today, 9:47 PM EDT

With the approval of the Obama administration, an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work.
 
Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department’s $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the job of assembling the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car has been outsourced to Finland.
 
“There was no contract manufacturer in the U.S. that could actually produce our vehicle,” the car company’s founder and namesake told ABC News. “They don’t exist here.”
 
Henrik Fisker said the U.S. money so far has been spent on engineering and design work that stayed in the U.S., not on the 500 manufacturing jobs that went to a rural Finnish firm, Valmet Automotive.
 
“We’re not in the business of failing; we’re in the business of winning. So we make the right decision for the business,” Fisker said. “That’s why we went to Finland.”
 
The loan to Fisker is part of a $1 billion bet the Energy Department has made in two politically connected California-based electric carmakers producing sporty — and pricey — cutting-edge autos. Fisker Automotive, backed by a powerhouse venture capital firm whose partners include former Vice President Al Gore, predicts it will eventually be churning out tens of thousands of electric sports sedans at the shuttered GM factory it bought in Delaware. And Tesla Motors, whose prime backers include PayPal mogul Elon Musk and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, says it will do the same in a massive facility tooling up in Silicon Valley.
 
For more on the Fisker and Tesla loans and the Obama administration’s green auto loan program, watch “Good Morning America,” “World News with Diane Sawyer,” and “Nightline.”
 
An investigation by ABC News and the Center for Public Integrity’s iWatch News that will air on “Good Morning America” found that the DOE’s bet carries risks for taxpayers, has raised concern among industry observers and government auditors, and adds to questions about the way billions of dollars in loans for smart cars and green energy companies have been awarded. Fisker is more than a year behind rolling out its $97,000 luxury vehicle bankrolled in part with DOE money. While more are promised soon, just 40 of its Karma cars (below) have been manufactured and only two delivered to customers’ driveways, including one to movie star Leonardo DiCaprio. Tesla’s SEC filings reveal the start-up has lost money every quarter. And while its federal funding is intended to help it mass produce a new $57,400 Model S sedan, the company has no experience in a project so vast.

There is intense scrutiny of the decisions made by the Department of Energy as it invests billions of taxpayer dollars in alternative energy. The questions come in the wake of the administration’s failed $535 million investment in solar panel maker Solyndra. The company’s collapse, bankruptcy and raid by FBI agents generated a litany of questions about how the Energy Department doles out billions in highly sought after green energy seed money.
 
A key question, experts and investigators say, is whether another Solyndra is in the offing.
 
[...]

Of COURSE this is a great bet: just look at how great things have gone for the Chevrolet Volt!!!

Wait, what’s that you say?  The Government Motors Volt is a complete fiasco?  But… but Obama just said that all the choices he made were the right ones, like his choice to piss away $535 million of the American people’s money even after being warned that it was a stupid move.

Because if you don’t agree with Obama blowing billions of dollars on green energy boondoggles whether here or overseas, you’re just a racist is all you are.

What was it Obama’s spiritual leader for over twenty years said?  “No, no, no.  Not God bless America.  God DAMN America!”

Well, God damn America it is.  And God damn American jobs, too.

A vote for Obama is a vote to piss on America. It always WAS a vote to piss on America.

If you’re tired of getting pissed on, it’s way past time to get pissed off and throw this fool out of office before he ruins America even more.

Democrats Continue Their Dirty Dealing Corrupt Crony Capitalist Boondoggles

Add this to the incredibly corrupt and incredibly partisan Obama boondoggle of Solyndra – that cost the American people well over half a billion dollars.

Add this to the fact that Obama is recklessly continuing to add another four more Solyndras and another five billion dollars to the crony capitalist corruption tab of the Obama administration.

AP Investigation: NC plant deal may enrich donors
GARY D. ROBERTSON, Associated Press, MICHAEL BIESECKER, Associated Press
Updated 08:52 p.m., Friday, September 30, 2011

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A state lawmaker and a group of Democratic political donors with ties to Gov. Beverly Perdue are poised to sell land at a handsome profit should a tire plant be lured to North Carolina with $100 million in state and local incentives, according to public records reviewed by The Associated Press.

As North Carolina’s chief executive, the governor is a key decision maker in large incentives deals involving state money. She also helps appoint the board members of a foundation that’s been asked to provide part of the tire plant’s package. Perdue’s campaign has received more than $52,000 from five men with an ownership stake in the Brunswick County industrial park proposed for the new plant.

The governor’s son, Garrett Perdue, is also a lawyer and site-selection consultant for an influential law firm that a county official said was advising the tire company. The firm, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, does not disclose which projects the younger Perdue works on, citing attorney-client privilege.

Perdue’s spokesman stressed Thursday that the company seeking the incentives, not the governor’s aides, chose the site. The North Carolina site is competing with sites in two other states.

“Gov. Perdue is focused on bringing 1,300 jobs to North Carolina,” said Mark Johnson, Perdue’s spokesman. “She doesn’t care where in the state the plant goes, who owns the land or who the company hires as its lawyer. She just wants the jobs.”

The fate of the project remained uncertain Friday night. Eugene Baten, chairman of the Sumter County Council in South Carolina, said the German company Continental Tire would locate a plant there, and that the deal would be formally announced next week. Company spokeswoman Kathryn Blackwell, though, said the company has not yet decided where it will put its new plant.

Although North Carolina officials didn’t identify Continental as the company looking at the N.C. site, Democratic Rep. Dewey Hill, who said he’s spoken to Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco about Project Soccer, described the company seeking the incentives deal as a “tire manufacturer and distribution company from Germany.” Hill’s district includes part of Brunswick County.

The proposed location, the Mid-Atlantic Logistics Center, is owned by a group of investors that includes state Sen. Michael P. Walters, a Democrat from Proctorville.

A development company owned by David T. Stephenson III, a Lumberton tobacco farmer, is also listed as having a stake in the center. Stephenson is a major Democratic contributor appointed to the board of Golden LEAF, a foundation created by the state legislature to dole out hundreds of millions of dollars paid by cigarette manufacturers through a legal settlement.

Brunswick County officials have asked Golden LEAF for a grant to help fund an incentives package for the plant, according to the county’s top economic development official.

The deal is expected to include tax breaks, infrastructure improvements, cash grants and a forgivable loan. It’s not clear how much money the foundation might put in. The new facility, code-named “Project Soccer” by economic development officials, has been touted as creating up to 1,500 new jobs.

A confidential document outlining the terms of the proposed deal reviewed by The Associated Press indicates that money from the incentives package would be used to buy a large portion of the 1,129-acre site for the tire plant at a price of $6,000 an acre.

Records show the investors bought the site in 2007 for $4.3 million, or about $3,800 an acre.

Stephenson, a tobacco farmer and investor, did not return a message seeking comment Thursday.

Golden LEAF president Dan Gerlach wouldn’t say whether the foundation is involved in Project Soccer. But Gerlach said Stephenson came to him at a board meeting months ago and said he may have a conflict of interest if the foundation were to provide a grant for the project.

Gerlach said Stephenson asked that he not be provided any materials provided to the foundation related to Project Soccer because of his potential financial interest in the deal.

Gerlach said Stephenson has gone beyond the foundation’s conflict-of-interest policy by alerting the foundation to potential problems well before they could have reached the board. A board member isn’t required to put the potential conflict in writing, but Gerlach said he made a note affirming Stephenson’s request.

State lawmakers, who would have to approve the incentives package, have been briefed on the possibility of a special legislative session to be held in the coming weeks to vote on it.

Walters filed a letter with the Senate clerk on Aug. 25 recusing himself from any deliberations on the deal “to avoid any potential conflict of interests or the appearance of impropriety.”

He declined to comment further Thursday.

“I’ve recused myself from that project and that’s all I have to say,” Walters said.

In addition to Crisco, Womble Carlyle lobbyist Laura DeVivo has been talking with key lawmakers. A legislator described a meeting in which DeVivo and other Womble lobbyists worked with state officials to gain support for the proposed incentives package. The legislator asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations.

DeVivo works on Womble’s government affairs team, which also includes Perdue’s son. In an interview last year, Garrett Perdue described his role with the firm as identifying companies seeking to relocate to the state and helping them find sites to meet their needs.

The firm’s government affairs team is led by two attorneys, former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Burley Mitchell and former Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt.

Mitchell declined to comment Friday, and Hunt did not return a phone call from The Associated Press.

Gov. Perdue has said she doesn’t talk to her son about which companies he represents, though she has recused herself from making decisions in at least two economic incentives projects in recent years after her aides became concerned he was working on behalf of the companies involved.

Johnson, the governor’s spokesman, said he didn’t know whether Womble Carlyle played any role in advising the tire company in considering the proposed Project Soccer site.

Jim Bradshaw, director of the Brunswick County Economic Development Commission, said he was the one who first recommended the Mid-Atlantic site for Project Soccer last winter. He said the land was one of 53 sites originally under consideration. That list has now been whittled down to three: the Mid-Atlantic land and sites in South Carolina and Louisiana.

Bradshaw said some pieces of North Carolina’s proposed package are already in place. The state Department of Transportation has pledged $150,000 to extend a rail spur to the site and the state-supported N.C. Rural Center has awarded the county about $1.5 million toward water and sewer installation.

He said Gov. Perdue did not personally become involved in the negotiations until after the Mid-Atlantic site was in the running. He said August was the first contact he had with anyone from Womble Carlyle about the county’s proposed contributions to the incentives package. He declined to identify the person he spoke to.

Bradshaw also said he had no idea the owners of the proposed Project Soccer site have been frequent contributors to the Democratic Party or Gov. Perdue.

Campaign finance records show Stephenson and members of his family have donated more than $85,000 to Democratic candidates over the last 20 years, including $14,000 to Perdue since 2004. Records show $8,000 in contributions to former Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight, the Manteo Democrat who appointed Stephenson to the Golden LEAF board.

Walters and his wife have donated more than $34,000 to elected Democrats other than himself, including $14,000 to Perdue.

William E. Musselwhite, a Lumberton lawyer who owns a share of the land, has given more than $22,000 to state Democrats, including $14,500 to Perdue.

Dennis T. Worley, a Tabor City attorney and another of the owners, has given more than $28,000 to Democrats, including $7,700 to Perdue.

Kyle A. Cox, another Tabor City lawyer and part property owner, gave more than $11,000 to Democrats, including $2,000 to Perdue.

Bradshaw, the economic developer, said he doesn’t care who owns the land.

“I don’t know who these people are,” Bradshaw said. “I don’t know who contributes to who. I just want to bring these jobs to Brunswick County.”

Note: Now we have a slightly better idea why Democrat Governor Beverly Perdue said we should suspend our democracy so that the same Democrats could continue to pursue the same policies.

Obama and the Democrat Party machine that spawned him have to go.  While there is still some piece of America left to rebuild.