White House scheduled Solyndra layoffs for after ’10 elections?

I am almost relieved by this:

The Obama administration urged officers of the struggling solar company Solyndra to postpone announcing planned layoffs until after the November 2010 midterm elections, newly released e-mails show.

More accurately, I am relieved that I can still get angry about this.  You never know when you’re going to get suddenly numb about the latest batch of incompetent corruption that this Keystone Krooks of an administration seems to almost delight in.

Continue reading White House scheduled Solyndra layoffs for after ’10 elections?

Boxer pot aide should have gone with different drug.

You have probably read or heard by now that one of Senator Barbara Boxer’s used-to-be-senior-aides got busted for trying to bring pot into Capitol Hill. I say ‘used-to-be’ because they fired him, of course: aside from the bad image generally, as the Politico article notes Sen. Boxer is currently being a War on Some Drugs warrior when it comes to pot legalization. Now, I will not pretend that I do not have a certain rough sympathy for the fellow, coupled with a healthy contempt for his underlying arrogance. As someone privately commented to me on the matter, it must be pretty bad having to got to work for a Senator like Boxer every day: you’d almost need a painkiller. And/or a powerful anti-nauseant. As this is thus only indirectly Sen. Boxer’s fault, I’m not inclined to rake her personally over the coals for this.

However, I would like to know why she’s buying her own contraband – to wit, purchasing the endorsement of a woman who is up on ethics charges for using her position to profit family members. And no, I’m not joking or exaggerating. Continue reading Boxer pot aide should have gone with different drug.

Jan Schakowsky (D, IL-09) saves Shorebank after all.

Back in May it was reported that the failing, yet politically-connected Shorebank in Illinois was to be bailed out.  The bank actually closed last Friday, but was resurrected yesterday and turned into a new bank – one that will of course have no obvious relationship to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), who lobbied very strenuously to save Shorebank… even though it’s not based in her district.  It is, however, the bank that Schakowsky’s convicted felon husband Robert Creamer used to partially extricate himself from the consequences of his fraud scheme; the bank provided critical assistance to Creamer that allowed him to avoid default – which would have beneficial effects on his sentencing a decade later*.  There is a strong whiff of this transaction being part of a quid pro quo – with the latter half being paid off, well, right about now.

If you’re wondering why Jan Schakowsky can get away with having her and her husband being  tied up in a dirty bank deal without censure by the House of Representatives, while Rep. Maxine Waters is currently facing ethics charges for her and her husband’s involvement with OneUnited, the answer’s easy: Schakowsky is white, and is thus simply fundamentally real to Democratic leadership in a way that no African-American Member of Congress could hope to be to them.  It should not be a surprise that House ethics investigations are being allowed to continue only against those legislators whose seats are considered locked-in by the Democrats anyway.

Yes, let me clear: I’m explicitly calling the House Democratic leadership a bunch of racists.  They are, you know.  And it’s never more obvious than when you consider the things that they don’t do, when they don’t have to.

Moe Lane

PS: Joel Pollak is the GOP candidate for IL-09, and he’s been all over this topic.  I’ve met him: he’s a good guy.  Check him out.

Continue reading Jan Schakowsky (D, IL-09) saves Shorebank after all.

Hey, what do these twelve legislators have in common?

This is via That’s My Congress, which is about to become very confused about why it’s getting traffic from a VRWC site. Here’s the list:

Lois Capps
Michael Capuano
Ben Cardin
Diana DeGette
Eliot Engel
Barney Frank
Alan Grayson
Carolyn McCarthy
Bill Pascrell
Adam Schiff
Allyson Schwartz
Heath Shuler

…and they have two things in common. First, they’re all Democrats. Second, they all have email addresses with Erickson & Company. And what is Erickson & Company? As That’s My Congress puts it:

Erickson & Company is not a lobbying firm. Instead, it helps set up events like the Heath Shuler’s BBQ, at which lobbyists and other people seeking special favors can come, check in hand, to pay for access to elected officials and their aides.

In other words, it’s a legal [and Democratic-aligned] money-laundering facility for lobbyists. Need to toss Heath Shuler some cash, but you’re a dirty lobbyist? Well, go to Shuler’s little BBQ (run by a go-between), drop a grand for a plate of food, and say hi! No fuss, no muss, no need for disclosure. Shuler’s happy: he’s getting his cut of your entry fee. The go-between is happy: it’s getting its cut of your entry fee. And you’re happy: this is a lot cheaper than a maximum campaign contribution would be.

So remember this, the next time anybody on that list – or, honestly, any Democrat – talks about the evil of lobbying: the sound you hear isn’t scorn towards those who would try to pay for influence.  Nope.  It’s scorn towards the rubes who don’t know how to tell when a Democrat is gaming the system.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Hey, Pete Stark’s (D) under an ethics investigation!

You know Pete: he’s that crazy Democrat who goes around threatening to throw journalists out the window when he doesn’t like the questions.  He’s also that crazy Democrat who’ll take over for Charlie Rangel at Ways & Means if Rangel ever has to answer for his ethics violations, which is probably not the least reason why the Democrats haven’t thrown Rangel out of a metaphorical window of his own.  Anyway, Pete’s getting investigated:  the Washington Times is guessing tax evasion, real estate where-does-he-actually-live edition.

Yes.  You’re all shocked that a Democratic politician wasn’t paying his taxes.

This got reported back in March, mind you.  And they’re getting around to checking it out now.  But no doubt the federal government will be much quicker about having that suspicious dark spot in your next X-ray properly assessed.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Charlie Rangel (D, NY) gave money to Democrats on Ethics Committee.

(Via @vermontaigne) Three of them.  Need I add that Charlie Rangel is currently under investigation by that committee?

Charlie’s “angels” on the committee include Congressmen Ben Chandler of Kentucky, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina and Peter Welch of Vermont. All have received donations from Rangel.

Two of them – Chandler (KY-06, R+9*) & Butterfield (NC-01, D+9) – are apparently keeping it, too.  Considering that Rep. Rangel has given money to 119 Congressmen since the ethics probe began last year, you could almost not blame them.  Or almost not blame Rangel for acting as if he was above the laws that he writes:

Congressman Rangel has been arrogant in refusing to discuss how, as the man who writes this country’s tax laws, he failed to report over $1 million in outside income and $3 million in business transactions as required by the House, lapses under investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

“I recognize that all of you have an obligation to ask questions knowing that there’s none of you smart enough to frame it in such a way that I’m going to respond,” Rangel said.

Almost.  But trust me, Charlie: the GOP takes back the House in 2010, we’re going to find it really easy to make you respond to the question.

Moe Lane

*Ben Chandler has already acquired a Republican challenger: Matt Lockett.

Crossposted to RedState.

Keep watching the skies! …Err, local Missouri news.

(H/T: @cayankee): The title is “FBI launches inquiries into alleged public corruption in Missouri” – which is an odd definition of the word ‘alleged,’ given that three Democrats (two of them state officials) have already pled guilty to federal obstruction charges.  The FBI press release is quite fun, actually, given that it’s full of the sort of details you only get when somebody’s fully-cooperating-with-the-authorities, or when somebody’s phone’s been tapped.  Or both.  As Top of the Ticket noted, this could be an interesting autumn.

Along that line of thought… it’s certainly been a year for Democratic corruption at the state level, yes?  Blagojevich over in Illinois, half of the Bergen County Democratic Party in New Jersey, now what promises to be an extensive and loving look at Democratic state party shenanigans in Missouri… if this keeps up, people might start thinking that there’s, oh, a Culture of Corruption or something going on here.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Breaking: CURRENT(?) DSCC national finance chair arrested for bank fraud.

Hassan Nemazee helped raise 115 million for the DSCC in 2006.

[UPDATE] Welcome, Hot Air readers.

Hassan Nemazee was more recently a heavy donor and bundler for both the Clinton and Obama Presidential campaigns, bringing in over half a million for the new President; he was also a major bundler for the Presidential Inaugural.

NY Businessman Charged With $74 Million Bank Fraud Against Citigroup

A New York man was charged with allegedly defrauding Citigroup Inc. (C) out of $74 million in loans.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan and the Federal Bureau of Investigations say Hassan Nemazee, with residences in Manhattan and Katonah, N.Y., fraudulently applied for the loans for Nemazee Capital Corp., of which he is chairman and chief executive.

Federal prosecutors contend Nemazee obtained the money by giving the banking giant “numerous documents that purported to establish the existence of accounts in Nemazee’s name at various financial institutions containing many hundreds of millions of dollars,” the Justice Department said in a statement. “In fact, those were fraudulent and forged documents.”

And I originally had him down as ‘former’ national finance chair for the DSCC, except that I’m seeing no signs that he quit the job (screenshot here).

See also AoSHQ & @AmandaCarpenter. [Also, Dan Riehl, who’s doing some more research on the topic.]

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

How to (legally*) personally profit from your position as a Presidential Senior Advisor.

Just follow these easy steps!

  1. Create AKPD Message & Media, a public relations company that specializes in astroturfing.
  2. Attach yourself to the campaign of the candidate that eventually wins the 2008 Presidential election.
  3. Disengage yourself from AKPD Media, but under circumstances where the company ‘owes’ you 2 million dollars, which it will then pay back over time (we call this ‘income’).
  4. Become a Senior Advisor to the President.
  5. Have the President negotiate a tone-deaf deal between the White House and lobbyist group PhRMA to get the pharmaceutical industry to support health care rationing.
  6. ‘Discover’ one fine summer day that AKPD Media, the company that you created and which is still paying you money, has been given a fat advertising contract by PhRMA to astroturf health care rationing.
  7. Profit!

See The Conservatives, Michelle Malkin, Protein Wisdom, Bloomberg, & Hugh Hewitt for more. Continue reading How to (legally*) personally profit from your position as a Presidential Senior Advisor.

Update on Hudson County Democratic Party Organlegging Arrests.

Some details from the story (covered here and here):

  • Yes, in fact: there was trafficking in human organs involved.  At least one individual has been brought up on charges of attempting to sell a liver.
  • The list of individuals and charges can be found here: we’re looking at conspiracy to commit extortion, money laundering, and again, at least one charge in trafficking in human organs.  There are at least two Republicans on the list; but the Hudson County Democratic Party organizational chart is probably going to end up looking like there was a sudden outbreak of the bubonic plague.
  • There is currently no indication that Governor Corzine was aware that numerous Democratic officials were allegedly involved in any conspiracy to commit extortion, money laundering, and/or trafficking in human organs.  He apparently missed it completely.
  • The FBI raided Community Affairs Commissioner (and NJ Cabinet member) Joseph Doria’s office, presumably in relation to their investigation of conspiracy to commit extortion, money laundering, and/or trafficking in human organs charges; Doria has resigned.
  • Gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie (R) is also involved in this up to his eyeballs; in the sense that he was the one that started the investigation two years ago as a… I believe the term is, ‘crusading US Attorney.’
  • An attempt to get a statement from Senator Robert Menendez (D, NJ), Hudson County Democrat and chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, was unsuccessful.  There has been no press release and/or statement made at the time that this post was written.

And that’s how it stands at the moment.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.