This is how you waste $1.6 billion

I often have to drive down 880 to San Jose for work. For the past few years, I couldn't help but notice the gargantuan Solyndra campus near the county border. Set in a relative lull between two brutal stretches of stop-and-go traffic, I'm usually whizzing by the solar panel manufacturer quickly without taking a good look. What I recall though, is that I'm always amazed by not only how big, but how shiny and ornate the main building is, complete with a fancy water feature that seems to scream, "We're doing quite well, thank you."
Apparently, it was all a lie.
Despite $1.6 billion in funding, half a billion of which came from the American tax-payer, Solyndra has suddenly gone belly up, leaving 1,100 employees out in the cold.

Solyndra was one of about 40 projects funded since 2009 through a U.S. Department of Energy loan program that helped major wind, solar, nuclear and ethanol projects. Together, those projects are expected to create about 60,000 jobs, according to the DOE.

The department on Wednesday defended the Solyndra loan, saying public investment is needed to help U.S. companies keep pace with heavily subsidized Chinese firms.

"The alternative is simply walking off the field and letting the rest of the world pass us by," DOE public affairs director Dan Leistikow wrote in a blog post.
-Inside Bay Area

Uh, so we stayed on the field and got our asses handed to us anyway. Gotta admire that good ol' stubborn American bravado. At least we wasted that money in America, and not in China...

NMA budget deal impasse cartoon

US to increase military aid to Philippines

As if this coast guard cutter wasn't enough, the US government is set to send over a whole lot more outdated gas-guzzling hand-me-downs.
Although it has not yet officially done so, the US congress is allegedly committed to increasing "defense and security assistance" to the Philippines. Very committed. They're actually offering $30 billion, which is double the amount requested by the White House.

“We welcome US engagement with our country because we share the same values of democracy, freedom and rule of law.”
-Phillipine Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo

That's actually a true statement.
This one wasn't though.

“The Philippine government remains fully committed and determined to address issues in relation to the protection and promotion of human rights,” he said.
-Philippine Star

Obama has apparently asked Congress to drop 3 conditions on the $30 billion assistance package. All 3 conditions have to do with human rights:
1)take human rights violations seriously
2)hold the military accountable for human rights violations
3)don't let the military commit human rights violations
Maybe they were a bit redundant, but Obama wants them ALL gone. Clearly, both governments do share the same views on the value of democracy, freedom and rule of law.
Conveniently coincidentally, the Philippines allegedly has beef with China over the Spratly issue, and the Abu Sayyaf have allegedly kidnapped two more Fil-Ams. And now the US Congress is rewarding a military with a horrible human rights track record with $30 billion for next year, but Obama doesn't want them to have to improve that track record. In fact, Philippine government forces violated a ceasefire amidst peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front just last week.
Is the increased aid for focusing on fighting the Abu Sayyaf and China? Well, the Philippine military doesn't stand a chance against China (especially not with old coast guard cutters), and their track record against the Abu Sayaff hasn't been much better either.
However, a lot of excess inventory can be liquidated (i.e. cut from the budget) and a lot of exercises could be exercised with $30 billion.

And btw, Hillary is scheduled to visit Manila in mid-November. Can't wait.

Why I call the debt talks a puppet show/telenovela

A young hot shot rookie Senator once said these words on the Senate floor:

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies...Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that “the buck stops here.” Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.
-Senator Barack Obama
March 20, 2006

BTW - Under President Barack Obama's watch, several trillion has been added to the national debt, several new fronts have been opened up in Cheney/Bush's infinite war by terror, the Federal government has been raiding Social Security funds, and read my lips....the rich are not paying any more taxes.

US Debt animation from NMA

Lol.

Obama on 60 minutes

IMHO, Obama has a noticeable eye tick whenever he talks about the subject of bin Laden actually being killed and buried. Just say'n.

Thanks for the closeups CBS.

More on bin Laden assassination

Good Ol' George Washington himself has weighed in on Boogeyman bin Laden's alleged assassination. In his latest post, our founding father breaks down the lies of 9/11 (since it's officially back on the table).

Bin Laden might have been a bad guy ... but the way his life and death have been used have been dishonest.
-Washington's Blog

And in a previous post, quoting a Christian Science Monitor article, George makes the very valid point that by allegedly assassinating and quickly disposing of the body at sea (too quickly to have conducted a DNA test btw), we lost out on the invaluable opportunity to debrief/torture/coerce a false confession out of the world's former most wanted man, a man who allegedly ran what is arguably history's most dangerous terror organization (not counting its parent organization, the CIA).

The opportunity to glean valuable intelligence from the leader of a powerful terrorist organization was lost, says retired Army Col. Stuart Herrington, a military intelligence specialist who interrogated generals under the command of Saddam Hussein and evaluated US detention operations at Guantánamo.

It is a misconception that ideologues don’t talk, he says. “The opinion that, ‘Oh, he’s such a fanatic, he won’t tell us anything' – that’s uninformed blathering by people who don’t understand the business,” Herrington adds. “The experience with those who worked with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and some of the other most senior terrorists is that they are narcissists and that they do want to talk – and talk and talk.”

The key, Herrington says, is to “channel those long talking sessions where they begin to – inadvertently at first – reveal things that are useful. All the while he’s talking, he’s telling us things that he doesn’t think are important, but they are.”
-Christian Science Monitor

Increasingly, it is becoming crystal clear that IF bin Laden was still alive in that mansion in Abbottabad, the mission was indeed to silence him, not to bring him to any kind of justice.
And before you offer up any of the "keeping him alive would've riled up the terrorists" idiocy, realize that murdering him in cold blood in front of his wife and then dumping his body into the Arabian Sea was a pretty infuriating chain of events as well.

Boogeyman bin Laden's alleged assassination

The usual suspects, Michel Chossudovsky and Mike Ruppert, have come out with their takes on Boogeyman bin Laden’s alleged assassination.

Obama has pronounced Osama bin Laden to be dead. But according to historical facts and extensive documented evidence, he may never have been alive in the way that the official propaganda has portrayed him. Or alive at all.

Osama bin Laden has been a CIA asset in reality, and a propaganda boogeyman in official fiction.

The official Osama bin Laden narrative, along with “Islamic terrorism” and Al-Qaeda, is a CIA military-intelligence fabrication designed to provide a pretext for an eternal global war agenda, and to provide an ongoing propaganda pretext for the “war on terrorism”.

The “Militant Islamic Network”, including bin Laden himself, has been, since the Cold War a intelligence network that has been “run” on behalf of Anglo-American interests.

The attack of 9/11 was a false flag operation, planned and carried out by Anglo-American intelligence assets, blamed on “Al-Qaeda”, despite no credible supporting evidence.
-Global Research

Everyone wants so badly to believe that it was just a Bush/Cheney thing, but that’s why they’re still hoping for change.

I have personally interrogated underage criminal suspects who could lie better than White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. It has been four days since the P.T. Barnum (“There’s a sucker born every minute”) proclamation of the death of Osama bin Laden (OBL). President Obama’s account of the firefight has had zero credibility from the outset and it continues to fray and wear thin as each day passes.
-Collapsenet

To me, Bin Laden was the trump of trump cards. Obama/the bankstas must be desperate.

You see people will accept lies if their lives get better. As their lives get worse, they will inevitably ask questions. And as their lives disintegrate, they will start looking for both answers and suspects. That was and is the swimming pool full of gasoline that Barack Obama is lighting matches in.
-Collapsenet

The Ruppert article, per the usual, does a good job dissecting the official story, and very easily I might add. He also says that 9/11 is in fact back on the table.
Let's roll.

They killed the boogeyman

So, in all seriousness, this is some pretty serious shat. They killed the boogeyman. They let the black guy get credit for it too. Unprecendented. This probably could've happened a while ago. As in under Bush. A major trump card has been played.
What's next?

Bin Laden Killed to Coverup Evidence?

Well it is a fact that 5 people were killed during a gunfight in the heart of a Pakistani military stronghold far from the Afghanistan border, and that the world's most wanted outlaw had been linked to that location as far back as last August. Allegedly, the US Navy Seals "Team 6" killed Al-Qaeda top dog terrorist Osama Bin Laden during that gun battle.
Now though, the Iranian Fars News Agency is speculating on why he was killed, and whether or not he was killed at all.
Why he was killed:

TEHRAN (FNA)- The US has killed the Al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, in a bid to prevent any possible leakage of intelligence and information about the US-Al-Qaeda joint terrorist operations, a senior Iranian legislator underscored on Monday.
-Fars News Agency

Is he dead though?:

TEHRAN (FNA)- Former Director of Pakistan's Military Intelligence Organization General Hamid Gol questioned the authenticity and reliability of the pictures showing the al-Qaeda Leader, Osama bin Laden, as dead, and said certain ambiguities have made him suspicious of the American account of bin Laden's death.
-Fars News Agency

No hard evidence to report, just speculations....kinda like the US government's case against Bin Laden.

And before all the "of course that's what Iran is saying" arguments start flying, here is a non-Arab take:

Bin Laden Death Video

Previously unreleased video of Osama Bin Laden's final battle. Apparently, it was a pack of ISI hyenas, and not "a small team of americans" who finished off the world's most wanted man.

IMHO, this video might not be authentic because Bin Laden's beard isn't grey, and he is surprisingly agile for a guy whose kidneys failed a decade ago.
Irregardless of its authenticity, we can thank the Don for this one too.

How they manipulate us

Oil prices are going up because supplies are going down. In addition to that primary fact, the dollar is also on the decline. That said, TF Metals Report posted something interesting yesterday that highlights the lack of real difference between the two ruling, corporate-backed parties. Bill O'Reilly was on Lou Dobbs, and they were talking about oil speculators...the night before Obama announced his "Gas Price Task Force."

The O'Bottom regime knew that the President was going to be discussing this nonsense yesterday. So, they put out a call to their new buddy, O'Reilly. Remember, O'Reilly owes them a few favors after they granted him the exclusive interview back on Super Bowl Sunday, O'Reilly obliges by gladly staging this interview to give the President some political cover. Adding Dobbs to the segment to criticize Obama gives O'Reilly cover, too. Pretty handy, huh?
Do you now see how you are manipulated? The Fed/TBTF/Govt/Media Complex is desperately clinging to power.
-TF Metals Report

I haven't yet found video of that particular idiotfest, but here is a clip of the Superbowl halftime circlejerk between Billo and Obummer.

Obama Announces Gas Price Task Force

"We're gonna make sure that no one is taking advantage of American consumers."
-Obama

Lol.
Too bad the task force won't have any authority over the Saudis.
This from the Wall Street Journal:

Unreliable data on oil production—starting with the world's largest exporter, Saudi Arabia—are adding to the price volatility triggered by unrest in the Mideast, despite efforts to improve transparency.
Saudi Arabia said on Sunday that its production had been at least 700,000 barrels a day lower in March than existing estimates, including those published by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The surprise news pushed the price of oil down by more than $1 per barrel Monday morning.
The revelation highlighted a problem that is roiling markets at the moment: a dearth of solid information about the true state of production and supplies.
"Markets are fueled by a lack of reliable information," said John Hall, a London-based oil consultant. "Nobody knows if we are short of oil."

Biden falls asleep during Obama speech

Today, President Obama promised to slash $4 trillion from the Federal Deficit over the next twelve years. Big news, huh?
Tell that to Vice-President Joe Biden, who couldn't stay awake while his boss was talking about something that is without a doubt the biggest issue confronting the US government.


Economics is indeed boring to most people, but I would like to think that Obama is a slightly better speaker than Ben Stein.