John Kerry Used Taxpayer Funds to Finance His Daughter's Six Figure Income And 'Expenses'

 

Here's yet another example of how our self appointed Ruling Class plunders the country.

Our Secretary of State John Kerry funneled millions of taxpayer dollar to his daughter's non profit, which pays her over $140,000 per year salary in edition to various expenses - travel,car, phone, fundraising, the usual assortment:

The Department of State funded a Peace Corps program created by Dr. Vanessa Kerry and officials from both agencies, records show. The Peace Corps then awarded the money without competition to a nonprofit Kerry created for the program.

Initially, the Peace Corps awarded Kerry’s group — now called Seed Global Health — with a three-year contract worth $2 million of State Department money on Sept. 10, 2012, documents show. Her father was then the chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, which oversees both the Department of State and the Peace Corps.

Seed secured a four-year extension in September 2015, again without competition. This time, the Peace Corps gave the nonprofit $6.4 million provided by the Department of State while John Kerry was secretary of state.

Seed also received almost $1 million from a modification to the first award, as well as from Department of State funds the group secured outside the Peace Corps. {...}


It's also clear that Kerry and government officials colluded to launch the program and make sure that that Seed would get the contract and no one else's non-profit would be considered.

“Vanessa, Buck, and Sarah are meeting with Ambassador Goosby on the morning of 9/16/11 to discuss next steps for the GHSP,” said a memo from September 16, 2011 — one year before Seed received its first award. “Conversations with OGAC leadership confirm that Ambassador Goosby is very supportive of the initial proposal.”

The memo was referring to Peace Corps Directors Buck Buckingham and Sarah Morgenthau and Ambassador Eric Goosby, who then headed the Office of the US Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) — the State Department office that later funded GHSP.


A meeting one month later unveiled the strategy to send tax dollars to Seed.
“The public funding to start the GHSP is secured, it will come from OGAC through [Peace Corps] to support core HQ and field based activities, and to develop a sub-agreement to provide support to the foundation for contributions for their work in this partnership,” minutes from a Nov. 18, 2011, meeting said. The “foundation” refers to Seed, which was then called the Foundation for Global Health Service.

Officials in that meeting also assured Kerry that she would not have to compete with other groups for Department of State funds.

“Buck obtained clarity of the mechanism by which federal money will be provided to” Seed, the minutes said. “The process can be fast tracked and non-competed through a specific grant mechanism.”

 Seed got its first award less than a year later. And the Peace Corps later provided another nearly $900,000, claiming it underestimated the program’s expenses, especially travel and salary costs.

The only person listed as getting a salary according to the nonprofit’s 990 tax form filed after that $900,000 was provided  is Dr. Vanessa Kerry — over $140,000 for a reported 30 hours per week.

The $6.4 million extension - also provided without competition- was given in spite of  Peace Corps rules that  contracts could not extend beyond five years.  While there were a few voices saying that this was a violation of the Peace Corp's rules, ultimately they were overruled and the decision was made they would “go forward with sole-source option if mandated by OGAC,” minutes from a July 17, 2014 meeting said. Of course, it was mandated.

So the extension was awarded without competition on Sept. 10, 2015. And the  Peace Corps violated its five-year policy by giving Seed seven years of non-competitively awarded funding.

Of course, State Department spokesman John Kirby issued a statement that Secretary Kerry had nothing to do with the large amount of funding and special treatment his daughter's non-profit got.

I'm sure Kirby's defense of his boss can be believed. Not.

In spite of the cronyism involved, Seed isn't the Clinton Foundation. It actually does try to do some good.  It offers medical professionals like doctors and nurses student debt forgiveness in exchange for their agreeing to work as volunteers in Africa. But the insider, non-competing rule bending nature of how this was done? Corrupt to the core.


Whatever good Seed accomplishes, the downside that the media rarely reports are the number of Peace Corps and medical volunteers in Africa who get robbed, raped, assaulted, kidnapped for ransom and murdered every year, especially women. A lot of these countries have a Muslim component and infidels are fair game.

You have to wonder if Seed fills in it's potential volunteers on that grim detail before they go overseas. From what several sources have said, the Peace Corps itself tends to gloss over it.

The Border? The Mideast? Scandals? For The Obamas It's Luxury Vacay Time Again!!

 

Now isn't this precious! The Obamas and a crew of their very special invited guests are planning a 16 day luxury vacation at Martha's Vineyard on a $12 million, 10-acre forested estate with expansive water views of Vineyard Sound on the southwestern corner of the island. The house will have to be altered for security and communications facilities, and then returned to its former condition. That could cost $150,000 and up alone, based on similar jobs like this done for other trips.

From August 9 to August 24 they'll be camped out at the 8,100-square foot beachfront home of a heavy Democrat donor that includes an infinity pool and hot tub, plus a basketball and tennis court.Valerie Jarret, of course will be among the ones in attendance.

A total of 12 smaller houses have been rented for the not quite so favored and the help on the tony island resort during high season..not cheap, although the White House isn't revealing the cost. The average on the island in August is a mere $400-$500 per day. For a dozen houses,lets split the difference and say $8,000 per day, or a total of around $150,000 since the staffers normally get there a few days before the president.

And then, there's security. We can't have gawkers or the non-connected interfering with the Obamas' fun, now can we?

Figure at least 50 Secret Service agents, plus a number of Navy and Coast Guard ships that will be on hand as well.The Secret Service all have vehicles ( normally at least 20 based on the usual size of the presidential entourage, so that means Air Force One plus military transport aircraft which usually includes two VC-25As and a C-130. There is usually also a chartered press plane to bring along additional journalists. Air Force One alone costs $68,000 an hour to run, so figure over $400,000 round trip just for Air Force One, plus the same for the identical backup Air Force One 747 (that's right, there are TWO of them). Figure at least another $75,000 per plane for maintenance, so close to just over a million for the two Air Force Ones alone. The other planes add up to at least slightly more than that...let's call it two million five in all. That doesn't include food and beverages, something the Obamas and their guests are normally pretty free with according to documents obtained on other trips by Judicial Watch's FOIA suits.

Obviously the number and type of ships guarding the president is highly classified. I think assuming something like 15-20 ships including submarine and Coast Guard launches is probably pretty close to correct.Operation costs for military vessels vary according to size and type. A modern sub, for instance, costs about $55,000 per day to operate. If there are two of them, one for each side of the island, we're talking almost $2 million for eighteen days, just for the subs.Smaller destroyers cost about $150,000 per day, so a pair of those might run between $2 to $2.5 million. For the entire vacay, I would not be surprised if the naval ships cost between $5 million and $10 million for the 18 days they'll be on duty.Let's say $6 million, which is probably on the low side.

We're up to $8.8 million. And we haven't figured in food, gas, entertainment, greens fees, communications charges or a myriad of other miscellaneous expenses. I figure the entire romp will cost the taxpayers at least $10 million, probably more.

Just for comparison purposes, Mrs. Obama's previous luxury romp in Spain cost close to half a million of your tax dollars, and according to the UK Daily Mail, Judicial Watch reports that it cost more than $11 million for President and Mrs. Obama to travel to South Africa for Nelson Mandela's memorial service in December, where the president and his wife and their entourage were in Africa for less than 13 hours.

No one has even begun to calculate the cost  of the luxurious China  vacation Michelle Obama took  with her mother and assorted hangers on that was actually billed as an official trip  believe it or not, even though no official business was conducted.

And the most fun part of all? Guess who's paying for it? We are! Now there's something to think about as you're trying to figure out whether you can swing the price of gas, meals at McDonalds or Carrows and a couple of nights in a Motel Six to take your own family out for a long weekend this summer or whether its going to be another staycation at home.

But for the Obamas, its Bluto Blutarsky's motto all the way: "Take it. Don't cost nuthin'. "

 

At least, it don't cost nuthin' for the Obamas!


But let's not be too critical. The president needs to rest up from his fundraising and campaigning for his fellow Democrats. That speech he always gives, the class warfare one at each stop ranting about the awful “1 percent,” the greedy “rich” (you know, anyone making $200,000 who's not working in government) and those do-nothing Republicans in congress must take a lot out of him.

(***BIG FAT NOTE*** Yours truly edited the above part of this piece after being notified by some of the usual trolls in the comments section that I had been punked by a SATIRE SITE. Yes, even the trolls serve a purpose sometimes. The part about the vacay is true, but the former numbers were so ludicrously off I should have known. Doesn't happen often, but I had a pretty big laugh at myself at how I fell into this one! Mea culpa.

So I researched what the likely costs would be for a presidential vacay in  a place like Martha's Vineyard, the  actual cost of operating the aircraft, renting auxiliary properties and the cost of operating the naval vessels.Of course, the trolls missed the forest for the trees, like always  -  that at a time when our economy is actually shrinking, so many are in want  and there are so many major problems to deal with, it's a selfish, indecent  and  classless move to go on a luxury vacay of this sort. That part was right on the money, and they of course ignored it. We now return to our regularly scheduled program )

Ah, but what about BUSH! Didn't HE go to that satanic ranch of his in Crawford all the time. HUH!?!



I hate it when the insane Left makes me defend a mediocre president like George W. Bush. Although of course he looks good, you know, in retrospect to some people.

The Bushes spent a mere fraction of what the Obamas have spent on vacation, and there's a simple reason why. Rather than renting a different house each time in a high cost resort, almost of of their vacations were spent in one of three places - at the family home in Crawford, at Camp David or at a family compound in Maine.

When a president goes on vacation, the biggest costs involve Air Force One, the subsidiary aircraft for staff and the Secret Service and accommodations for them.And the extensive changes to any property so the computer and communications networks are encrypted and secure and can be used successfully by the president in case something comes up, or simply if a decision needs to be made while he's on vacation.

In the case of the Bushes, two out of three of these location already had the communications networks and accommodations for the Secret Service and staff already in place on the premises, Camp David ( which doesn't even need to be flown to, so no Air Force one expenditures) and the Bush Compound in Maine, because of George HW Bush's presidency. The Bush family home in Crawford had to have these facilities prepared precisely ONCE, after George W. Bush became president. The only further expenditure for Crawford in 8 years was the flight time and the phone bill.

Now, in the case of the Obamas, they stay in different high priced digs each time where similarly high priced accommodations have to be found for the Secret Service, staff and help each and every time. And each and every time whatever mansion they're staying in has to be refurbished for security access and to accommodate the computer systems, surveillance cameras and communications networks needed...and then repaired and returned to their original condition when the Obamas leave...at literally millions in government expense, of course.

The Bushes weren't exactly high livers compared to the Obamas either. There was nothing like some of the gaudy spectacles we've seen since the Obamas came to town. And no one ever saw Mrs. Laura Bush sporting high fashion designer gowns at gala White House events.

There's no way of working it out besides hearsay from people who have served both presidents, but the overall impression we get is that President Bush spent a great deal more work time on his vacations than Barack Obama ever has. I wouldn't be at all surprised if that was true.

Oh, and one more thing. President Bush was an enthusiastic golfer, just like our current president. But he gave it up entirely once we went to war after the invasion of Afghanistan. To paraphrase the president's own words, he didn't want some mother or wife of an American soldier in harm's way to see her president playing golf when their loved ones were in danger.

That showed a certain amount of empathy and class. We have a very different kind of man in the White House now.

And speaking of empathy and class, I also seem to remember that during the Depression, FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt weren't ones for ritzy parties, high fashion and expensive vacations either...and they could have afforded to pay for such things themselves, let alone getting them on the government dime. Whatever one thinks of their politics they were, essentially, decent human beings who had a sense of what living it up during war and depression would look and feel like to their fellow Americans.

 

As much as I might disagree with some of her views, Mrs. Roosevelt was an amazing human being and exactly the First Lady the country needed during depression, hardship and war. She flew all over the country at a time when flying wasn't anywhere near comfortable as it is now, and she went to the slums, the mines and the small towns left without hope to let the American people know that someone in Washington knew what they were going through and actually gave a damn. Franklin couldn't walk, so she became his legs.

And when war came, she ran herself ragged visiting the troops, selling bonds and comforting Gold Star mothers who had lost loved ones. She would have been outraged at the idea of spending millions on vacations or prancing around in designer clothes.



And FDR? His vacations consisted of therapy and playing pater familias at Warm Springs, going to Camp David and the odd yacht cruise for a day, a special relaxation for an old sailor.



 

Again, they were very different people than the current inhabitants of the White House. They were by no means perfect, but they came to give, not to take.

Michelle Obama And Her Entourage Living It Up In China - On Your Money

As you may know, First Lady Michelle Obama is in China on yet another vacation paid for by the American tax payers.

The First Lady, her mother, and her daughters are staying in the presidential suite at the Westin Beijing Chaoyang, a 3,445-square-foot suite designed with the ultimate luxury in mind that costs a whopping $8,350 a night.

 

Ah, but that's just for the Obamas. An assortment of her retainers and Chicago and DC hangers on have additional rooms in the hotel, and the Secret Service and lower level help have an entire floor booked.

Mrs. Obama's previous luxury romp in Spain cost close to half a million of your tax dollars, and according to the UK Daily Mail, Judicial Watch reports that it cost more than $11 million for President and Mrs. Obama to travel to Africa for Nelson Mandela's memorial service in December, where the president and his wife and their entourage were in Africa for less than 13 hours. This week-long China trip will come with a heavy tab, what with the increased flying time to Beijing, the five star accommodations and meals and all the additional security.The entire spectacle amounts to over 70 people getting a luxury trip to China on the American taxpayers for what is essentially a tourist excursion with no official business involved at all - yet it's being billed as an 'official trip.'

Yep, real warriors for the middle class! There's a quaint expression that comes to mind here, but I digress.

Once Again, Obama Shows His Contempt For His Fellow Americans

President Barack Obama, in response to some pointed questions directed at White House Spokes person Jay Carny finally went ahead and signed up for ObamaCare. The way he did it is an indication of how much contempt he actually has for middle class Americans he wants to force on to ObamaCare.

First of all, the president already has the best health coverage your money can buy free of charge from military physicians of the White House Medical Unit.

So this is 'symbolic'. And to add insult to injury, he signed up for ObamaCare's Bronze coverage, the cheapest available and the one with the most minimal coverage, which of course he'll never use, even after his term in office is over. And did he sign up using the ridiculous website he spent close to a billion dollars of our money on? Are you kidding?

Obama also did not enroll through the troubled Healthcare.gov or the D.C. exchange’s website. Aides signed him up in person over the weekend, due to the “complicated nature of the President’s case,” the White House aide said. Some of Obama’s personal information is not readily accessible on the government databases used by the website for identity verification.

So, our president signed up for peon level coverage he will never use, exempted his family, didn't even have to struggle with the dysfunctional website and isn't going to have his personal information subject to those 'navigators' he wants the rest of us to entrust our own personal data to who lack even a criminal background check as a prerequisite to be hired.

After all the lies, the misery and lost jobs and income this president is directly responsible for, somehow he got the notion that this 'symbolic gesture' is going to look good and make us forget about that.

Simply astounding.

Another Posh Vacay..The Obamas To Spend A Week At Martha's Vineyard

 

Yes, the Obamas have scheduled yet another lavish, taxpayer funded vacation for themselves...this time, it's a week at Martha's Vineyard:

C’est la Vie, is designing a new t-shirt to mark the president’s return. Sharky’s Cantina is preparing to roll out its “Obamarita” once again, enticing customers with a margarita made with mandarin oranges, pineapple juice, and tequila (they also have Barack-o-taco, and Barack-guac).

“We’re just pandering,” concedes owner JB Blau.

One mystery is where the Obamas will stay. The 28.5-acre estate they have rented in the past, called Blue Heron Farm, was sold in December 2011 to a European couple and it is apparently unavailable to the Obamas to rent.

The White House won’t say where he plans to stay, and neither will his friends.

“I’ll just say he won’t be as far away as he has been in the past, and I’m grateful for that,” said Charles Ogletree, a Vineyard regular and Obama’s former Harvard Law School professor.

On the island, rumors have been rampant that Obama has been eyeing property in Farm Neck. But others have said that area, where the lots are smaller and less secluded, is unlikely.

Regardless, Obama will be there during a busy time on the island.

The Martha’s Vineyard Livestock Show and Fair, which Obama’s daughters have attended in the past, is Aug. 15-18. The Grand Illumination, an annual outdoor festival in Oak Bluffs, is slated for Aug. 14, and the Oak Bluffs annual fireworks show is scheduled for Aug. 16.

“That third week of August is really the highest of high season,” said Sean Federowicz, a real estate agent.

Harry Belafonte will be performing at an invitation only event at Dreamland theater on Aug 12, an event that’s being organized by Charles Ogletree, Obama’s former professor at Harvard Law School.

Isn;t that just precious? Oh the jolly frolics of our ruling class! Honestly, we're just not worthy.

Culture Of Corruption: Hillary's Aide Huma Didn't Disclose Private Consulting Work On The Taxpayer's Dime

In all of his corrupt and imperious dealings, President Obama's one big misstep was to target reporters by monitoring their e-mails and phone calls...because it's going to dry up all those off the record sources.That story's getting more coverage than Benghazi, more coverage than Fast and Furious and definitely more coverage than the Gosnell abortion mass murder trial.

In consequence, the press have reacted to this president threatening their bread and butter by actually starting to run the sort of critical stories about him and his associates you'd expect from a free press rather than the biased, regime compliant media we've seen for the past four years.

A case in point is this story on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's closest personal aide Huma Abedin, appearing in no less than the New York Times.

It appears that Ms. Abedin failed to disclose what appears to be a fair amount of work as a private consultant while she was supposedly working for the American taxpayers:

The State Department, under Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, created an arrangement for her longtime aide and confidante Huma Abedin to work for private clients as a consultant while serving as a top adviser in the department.

Ms. Abedin did not disclose the arrangement — or how much income she earned — on her financial report. It requires officials to make public any significant sources of income.[...]

Ms. Abedin declined a request for an interview, but the picture that emerges from interviews and records suggests a situation where the lines were blurred between Ms. Abedin’s work in the high echelons of one of the government’s most sensitive executive departments and her role as a Clinton family insider.

While continuing her work at the State Department, in the latter half of 2012, she also worked for Teneo, a strategic consulting firm, which was founded by Doug Band, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton. Teneo has advised corporate clients like Coca-Cola and MF Global, the collapsed brokerage firm run by Jon S. Corzine, a former governor of New Jersey. [emphasis mine]

At the same time, Ms. Abedin served as a consultant to the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation and worked in a personal capacity for Mrs. Clinton as she prepared to transition out of her job as secretary of state.

Officials in the State Department and Clinton circles seem especially sensitive about the arrangement, and no one would speak about it on the record. Earlier this month, Mr. Weiner released a copy of the couple’s 2012 tax return showing that they had income of more than $490,000.

Huma Abedin's official salary as Hillary Clinton's Deputy chief of staff in 2012 was $135,000.

As you might remember, Huma Abedin is married to former congressman and Twitter indecent exposure artist Anthony Weiner, who has now announced he wants to run for mayor. Unlike some of his colleagues in congress, Weiner is not an attorney, had no private business to use as a backup or any useful experience that would allow him to make a living with his nose out of the government trough.So when he was forced to resign his seat after his Twitter antics he became unemployed.

Meanwhile, in spite of losing half their income Mr. Weiner and his wife Huma Abedin have continued to enjoy an expensive lifestyle that seemed far beyond her current salary, including a luxury Manhattan apartment.

But all things are possible when you're a member of the Ruling Class.A little consulting work here, payment for a few discreet assignments there and a government paycheck and benefits..it all adds up.

The stint working for Corzine and MF Global is particularly revealing. Over a billion dollars belonging to Corzine's investment clients simply vanished and no one, especially Corzine (who was never even indicted over the matter, much less prosecuted), is willing to say what happened to it. It just. you know, disappeared. Just a rounding error.

Did Huma have a hand in making it disappear, or does she have anything to say under oath on the subject?
And if the Clintons got her the job....

Then there's Ms. Abedin's substantial family connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, about which it's apparently forbidden to ask a question. Teneo, the strategic investment firm run by ex-Clintonista Doug Band also has a number of clients in the Arab World, some of whom almost certainly have Brotherhood ties. Did some of this clandestine consulting work involve being a liaison for investing Brotherhood funds at a mutual profit to Teneo and the Brotherhood?

Just asking...

Guess What? The Obama Admin Has No Idea How Many Agencies They're Funding!

 

The Feds have just revealed a deep, dark secret...they have no idea how many agencies they're asking us to pay for!

There is - wait for it - no complete official government list of federal agencies and programs telling the federal government what your tax dollars are supporting.

Needless to say, there are laws that say the feds are supposed to compile this information. The Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 (GPRAMA) — which President Obama signed into law on January 4, 2011 — established required quarterly performance assessments of all government programs, and also mandated that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) create a website that was supposed to publish quarterly performance reports by the heads of each agency.

Not only does that website — Performance.gov. launched in 2011 — only a partial list of government programs,(even the FCC isn't on the list) but the quarterly performance reports for even the agencies listed are conspicuous by their absence.

This should give you a clue about how the vast bureaucracy mandated by ObamaCare is going to function.


There isn't even a uniform standard about how strategic and performance plans data is published, something GPRAMA also mandated. Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute was quoted by the Daily Caller as saying that not only isn't there a list of federal agencies that exists, but that there's no standard machine-readable federal government organization chart or report format.

According to Harper, Many reports are currently published in formats like PDF instead of XML or StratML, which make it more difficult for the data to be useful to a computer.

There was a bill to establish reporting these kind of reporting standards supported by House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa that successfully made it through the House in 2012.. only to die in the Senate.

Ah Washington! It's fun spending other people's money!

Why Isn't The Obama DOJ Prosecuting Jon Corzine?

Awww, you remember Jon Corzine, don't you?

Ex-Senator, ex-governor of New Jersey, prominent Democrat. prominent Obama fundraiser...

You know, the ex-head of MF Global who still can't recall exactly what happened to $1.2 billion of his client's funds?

For some reason, in spite of all the president's class warfare rhetoric, no one at the Obama Department of Justice is prosecuting him. AllahPundit over at Hot Air speculates on why:

Via Breitbart, three possibilities here, all of them plausible and by no means mutually exclusive. One: The DOJ just isn’t in the business of prosecuting bankers anymore. If they didn’t go after anyone for the subprime crisis, they’re sure as shinola not going to start with a Democrat who used to be a governor and senator. Two: Corzine was and still is a mega-bundler for the Lightbringer, and as you know, there’s no creature in the Obama universe who’s valued quite as highly these days as a rich guy who can raise big dollars. To illustrate, clear your mind and reflect on all the stories you’ve read over the past six months about O attending ritzy fundraisers to keep feeding the maw of his huge campaign operation. Okay, now read this. QED. The Justice Department’s not going to deprive their boss of someone he desperately needs.

Three, per “Throw Them All Out” author Peter Schweizer: Turns out there are conflicts of interest galore at the DOJ for Eric Holder and his deputies when it comes to Corzine and MF Global.

First, the Government Accountability Institute has discovered that prior to going bankrupt, MF Global was a client of Mr. Holder’s former law firm, Covington & Burling. It is unclear how long Covington & Burling represented MF Global. However, records reveal that MF Global owed Covington & Burling $114,275.55 “for services rendered prior to Oct. 31, 2011,” the date MF Global filed for bankruptcy protection. Furthermore, this connection is complicated by the fact that the head of Justice’s criminal division, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, also hailed from Covington & Burling.

What’s more, Associate Attorney General Tony West, who helped raise an estimated $65 million in his role as the co-chairman of Mr. Obama’s campaign, came to the Department of Justice from Morrison & Foerster. The problem: MF Global’s trustee for the Chapter 11 bankruptcy has retained Morrison & Foerster as its general bankruptcy counsel.

Second, the trustee overseeing MF Global’s bankruptcy is former FBI Director Louis Freeh. During Mr. Holder’s 2009 Senate confirmation hearing, Mr. Freeh appeared as a witness testifying on Mr. Holder’s behalf. While Mr. Freeh stated that the two men shared no “social relationship,” the former FBI director praised the legal work Mr. Holder did for him when Mr. Freeh, then the general counsel for MBNA Bank in Wilmington, Del., retained Mr. Holder to represent MBNA Bank. “As general counsel, I could have engaged any lawyer in America to represent our bank,” Mr. Freeh said. “I chose Eric.”

It would seem the better part of wisdom for Mr. Holder to recuse himself from the investigation of MF Global given that the trustee and Mr. Holder have a clear previous legal relationship.

There's obviously a fourth possibility...and it might just explain where some of that $1.2 billion went.

When you look at things like this, President Obama's screeds about crony capitalism, Bain Capital, other people's tax returns and standing up for the middle class can only provoke an incredulous shake of the head or mocking laughter.

Hidden Bail Out; States Divert Cash Meant For Mortgage Relief To Fill Budget Holes

You might remember that a five of the country's largest banks were essentially arm twisted into a settlement of $25 billion dollars in cash and mortgage credits by the feds to be used to provide foreclosure prevention, investigations of financial fraud and a partial cure for the effects of the housing crisis.

I thought then that for the most part, it was simply a transfer of wealth with the Obama Administration and its regulatory czars providing the muscle. Now it turns out I had it exactly right.

The cash part of the settlement, $2.5 billion, is being used by most of the states that received it not to aid homeowners, but to fill the gaps in their state budgets. In California, for instance, the $400 million the Golden State received will be going directly towards filling the shortfall in the State's budget and Governor Jerry Brown has already crunched the numbers to include that money as part of his figuring.

What that essentially means is that rather than the homeowners the money was intended for, the public employee unions are getting it, since they're by far the biggest part of California's budget shortfall. Most of the Blue states are using their share of the swag in similar fashion, so the unions need not participate in any belt tightening.

Needless to say, the Obama Administration and the Justoce Department aren't doing anything about this since they were in on the game from the start. This was just another bail out, and it will be paid for with higher fees and interest rates by these bank's customers.

This should provide a giggle to those of us in the know the next time some OWS moron starts hyperventilating about 'banksters' and 'the 1%'.

The worst exploiters of working people and the middle class aren't located on Wall Street They're in places like Sacramento and Washington DC.

Ann Coulter: Obama’s silver spoon was ‘an affirmative action silver spoon’

Ann Coulter on Hugh Hewitt's radio program, responding to Obama saying that he and Michelle weren't 'born with a silver spoon in their mouths':

“Really, this ‘silver spoon’ business?” Coulter said. “Are they going to do that about every Republican while simultaneously revering FDR and JFK? They really were pure silver spoon aristocrats inheriting all their money. Mitt Romney gave away all the money he inherited. He made it on his own.”

“And the silver spoon Obama got — I mean that generation, it can’t be denied, you can’t support affirmative action and then pretend it doesn’t exist. You don’t transfer from Occidental, which by his own accounts in his autobiography he mostly spent smoking pot, to a fine Ivy League university like Columbia if you’re not checking off ‘black’ on your application. So you know, the silver spoon since I’ve been alive has been an affirmative action silver spoon.”

“I just don’t think Americans are angry at people who go out, work hard and show talent and make the world a better place,” she said. “Do we hate Steve Jobs or Bill Gates?…I think the real class warfare that Americans are hopping mad about is the class warfare between those of us who pay taxes and the people’s whose salary they pay — for their fabulous pensions and they’re partying trips to Las Vegas. And visiting whores in Colombia, and the highest-income counties in the nation not being Beverly Hills or Grosse Point or Greenwich, Conn., but counties all around the seat of government in Washington, D.C.”

“That kind of class warfare I think really strikes a chord right now. Not somebody who has worked hard and done well for himself.”

As usual, she hits the nail on the head.

Another thing worth noting...aside from affirmative action bonus points, the president was the grandson of a bank president who raised him and paid his fees at the exclusive Punahou School in Hawaii..and Michelle Obama's father was a well connected Democrat ward leader, with all that entails.

A Song Of Corruption In Washington - How Crony Capitalism Really Works

Here's an interview by Glenn Beck with my friend Peter Schweizer on his hot new book, Throw Them All Out, a brilliant expose of how the Obama Administration raped the American Treasury out of billions to reward Obama campaign donors and bundlers via 'green energy' scams. Like Solyndra, and Robert Kennedy Jr.'s Brightsource

The book also details how corrupt congress members use their knowledge of pending legislation to do insider stock trading that would be illegal for private individuals, and use their influential positions on various committees to milk campaign contributions and get access to the inside track on Initial Public offerings ( IPO's ) of hot stocks worth millions not accessable to the general public or even many stockbrokers.

Ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a good case in point. Others include Senator Diane Feinstein ( D-CA), our old pal Senator John Kerry ( D-MA), and of course Rep. Charlie Rangel.

Nor is it just Democrats, although they're by far the most prominent, especially since President Obama took over. At Schweizer relates above, an influential GOP Congressman who was ranking member of a key committee during the 2008 financial crisis was actually using sensitive information to short specific stocks - in essence, he had a financial interest in the US economy declining.

This sort of obscene plundering of the taxpayers is business as usual in Washington, and those whom realize it sometimes form an interesting political juxtaposition...like former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and Left leaning WAPO columnist Dana Milbank, both of whom have items up on the subject you should take the time to read.

If the OWS crowd had the brains G-d gave a goat, they wouldn't be occupying Wall Street - they'd be occupying Congress, and stalking President Obama at his fundraisers.

(hat tip to longtime Joshua's Army member Louie Louie for the video)

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An Excellent Read On How Obama Donors Got Rewarded With 'Green' Grants and Loans

My good friend Peter Schweizer's latest book, Throw Them All Out is up and running and it's an excellent expose' of crony capitalism DC- style. Here's an excerpt that details exactly how the Obama Administration raped the American Treasury out of billions to reward Obama campaign donors and bundlers via 'green energy' scams:

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. He wanted billions of dollars spent on “shovel-ready projects” to build roads; billions more for developing alternative-energy projects; and additional billions for expanding broadband Internet access and creating a “smart grid” for energy consumption. After he was sworn in as president, he proclaimed that taxpayer money would assuredly not be doled out to political friends. “Decisions about how Recovery Act dollars are spent will be based on the merits,” he said, referring to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. “Let me repeat that: decisions about how recovery money will be spent will be based on the merits. They will not be made as a way of doing favors for lobbyists.”

Really?

It would take an entire book to analyze every single grant and government-backed loan doled out since Barack Obama became president. 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. The grants were earmarked for alternative-fuel and green-power projects, so it would not be a surprise to learn that those industries were led by liberals. Furthermore, these were highly competitive grant and loan programs—not usually a hallmark of cronyism. Often fewer than 10 percent of applicants were deemed worthy.

Nevertheless, a large proportion of the winners were companies with Obama-campaign connections. Indeed, at least 10 members of Obama’s finance committee and more than a dozen of his campaign bundlers were big winners in getting your money. At the same time, several politicians who supported Obama managed to strike gold by launching alternative-energy companies and obtaining grants. How much did they get? According to the Department of Energy’s own numbers ... a lot. In the 1705 government-backed-loan program, 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.

These government grants and loan guarantees not only provided access to taxpayer capital. They also served as a seal of approval from the federal government. Taxpayer money creates what investors call a “halo effect,” in which a young, unprofitable company is suddenly seen to have a glowing future. The plan is simple. Invest some money, secure taxpayer grants and loans, go public, and then cash out. In just one small example, a company called Amyris Biotechnologies received a $24 million DOE grant to build a pilot plant to use altered yeast to turn sugar into hydrocarbons. The investors included several Obama bundlers and fundraisers. With federal money in hand, Amyris went public with an IPO the following year, raising $85 million. Kleiner Perkins, a firm that boasts Obama financier John Doerr and former vice president Al Gore as partners, found its $16 million investment was now worth $69 million. It’s not clear how the other investors did. Amyris continues to lose money. Meanwhile, the $24 million grant created 40 jobs, according to the government website recovery.gov.

One might think that the Department of Energy’s Loan Program Office, which has doled out billions in taxpayer-guaranteed loans, would be directed by a dedicated scientist or engineer. Or perhaps a civil servant with considerable financial knowledge. Instead, the department’s loan and grant programs are run by partisans who were responsible for raising money during the Obama campaign from the same people who later came to seek government loans and grants. Steve Spinner, who served on the Obama campaign’s National Finance Committee and was a bundler himself, was the campaign’s “liaison to Silicon Valley.” His responsibilities included fundraising, recruiting more bundlers, and managing Obama’s relationship with a cadre of very wealthy donors. After the 2008 campaign, Spinner joined the Department of Energy as the “chief strategic operations officer” for the loan programs. A lot of the money he helped hand out went to that same cadre of wealthy Silicon Valley campaign donors. He also sat on the White House Business Council, which is made up of Obama-supporting corporate executives.

More of the excerpt here.

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Palin: "The GOP Needs To Get It's Stuff Together To Stop The Rise Of A Third Party"

Prescient and spot on as usual, Governor Sarah Palin is simply telling it like it is - the Republicans have no concerted message so far, have been far to accommodating to President Obama's agenda and if they're not careful are at high risk of not just disenchanting their base, but losing it forever.

The latest Gallup says that 52% of Republicans think a third party is necessary, by the way.

As the person who was most responsible ( along with Senator Jim DeMint) for keeping the Tea Party inside the GOP tent and for the success the party had in the 2010 midterms, Governor Palin knows of what she speaks.

For the record, the last thing I personally want to see is a split in the Republican Party, not because I care that much about the GOP as an institution but simply because political infrastructures take time to build up, and a three party race along those lines would give Obama and the Democrats an advantage in 2012 that could lead to his serving a second term. And that would be disasterous for the country, as Governor Palin points out.

But I see no advantage either in maintaining a Ruling Class style GOP establishment that is simply going to be Democrat-lite.

The Republicans need to look at whom they are and the values the GOP is supposed to stand for and act accordingly. Otherwise, a third party is exactly what we'll see.

( h/t, Maggie)

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GE To Donate Entire $3.2 Billion Tax Refund To Feds to Offset Cuts - Psych!

( warning, language NSFW)

You'll remember that there was some outraged publicly when it was revealed that Obama donor and czar Jeffrey Immelt and his very well connected GE Corporation raked in $14.5 billion in profits but paid zero in taxes.

So when this fake press release came over the wires, the AP fell for it like a big, smelly fish:

GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt has informed the Obama administration that the company will be gifting its entire 2010 tax refund, worth $3.2 Billion, to the US Treasury on April 18, Tax Day, and will furthermore adopt a host of new policies that secure its position as a leader in corporate social responsibility.

“We want the public to know that we’ve heard them, and that we know many Americans are going through tough times,” said GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt. “GE will therefore give our 2010 tax refund back to the public and allow the public to decide how to spend it.”

Immelt acknowledged no wrongdoing. “All seven of our foreign tax havens are entirely legal,” Immelt noted. “But Americans have made it clear that they deplore laws that enable tax avoidance. While we owe it to our shareholders to use every legal loophole to maximize returns – we also owe something to the American people. We didn't write the laws that let us legally ahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifvoid paying taxes. Congress did. But we benefit from those laws, and now we'd like to share those benefits. We are proud to be giving something back to America, and we are proud to set an example for all industry to follow.”

The AP actually ran that story,but yanked it shortly afterwards when someone there realized that this had to be bogus.

It was a decent job too, since genewscenters.com is just one letter off from genewscenter.com, where GE actually hosts its news.

Needless to say, GE ain't gonna be giving anything back to the taxpayers. It's good to be the king...and it's almost as good to be one of the king's loyal toadies and fund raisers.

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GE: $14.5 Billion in Profits, $0 In Taxes!

It pays to be well connected with the Ruling party in DC-land, doesn't it Mr. Immelt?

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Bush In 2012...?@##!?

I notice that Rich Lowrey and the NRO crowd are shilling quite loudly for Jeb Bush as the GOP nominee in 2012.I'm sure Karl Rove and some of the usual suspects will jump on this 'spontaneous eruption of support' shortly.

Apparently they finally figured out that Mitt Romney isn't going to work out so well as the anti-Palin, and that Obama is going to be quite vulnerable to any halfway decent Republican, so they're looking to advance Jeb's timetable up four years. Can't let those grubby Tea Party yokels take over now, can we?

This is proof that some people never learn, and that G-d truly has a sense of humor.

(via memeorandum)

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Sarah Palin - Common Sense

Chris Muir at Day by Day, of course!

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Obama Takes A Roadtrip To India - At A Cost Of Over $2 Billion

Want fresh proof that President Barack Hussein Obama didn't get the message from the election on Tuesday?

The president is fleeing DC and getting out of a dodge with a four-day road trip to India.

He's taking along the majority of the White House staff, his personal Lincoln Continental Presidential limousine along with 40 other vehicles, two jets, armed with advanced communication and security systems, his personal Marine 1 helicopter, and a fleet of 34 US warships , including an aircraft carrier.

Then there's the special bomb-proof surface tunnel that is going to be installed by US Army engineers on the approach to Mani Bhavan, the Gandhi museum that the president's going to visit soon after he comes to Mumbai on Saturday.

The president and his entourage have booked a total of 800 rooms in Mumbai at the five -star luxury Taj Hotel and at the slightly less upscale Hyatt, where the 'help' will stay when they're not on duty. A similar amount of space has been booked at the equally opulent Maurya Hotel in New Delhi.

Cost to the American taxpayer? Around $2 billion when you include the cost of deploying the warships and the massive 500-man security detail.

$2 billion dollars for yet another vacation , while our country struggles with debt.

We no longer have a president, but a clueless, uncaring Bourbon king...Louis XIV redux.




UPDATE: Especially for all those Village Voice readers. It appears that Obama's ten-day jaunt will not cost $200 billion a day, but will likely end up costing about half that amount.

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Katie Couric: "..“This Great Unwashed Middle Of The Country”

CBS talking head Katie Couric unwittingly reveals just how much of a bubble she lives in via this embarrassingly servile puff piece by the Daily Beast's Howard Kurz.

As Couric approaches the end of her multi-million dollar contract with CBS news, she's decided to go out on the road because, as she says, “It’s great for me to get out of the chair and into the world. I started out as a reporter, and I still enjoy reporting.”

So she's touring what she calls “this great unwashed middle of the country” to get a feel for the mood in the midterms.“It’s fun to feel like you have connections with viewers out there. Sitting in the studio, you can feel pretty insulated.”

Oh and the 'middle of the country' according to Couric? Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and New Brunswick, New Jersey!



That will certainly provide a vast contrast to Manhattan, won't it?

And listen to this wisdom that she's gleaned from her travels!

“American voters are slightly schizophrenic—they want compromise, and yet some of them are ideologically so fixated to one point of view… There are a lot of moderate Americans who are just fed up with negative campaign ads, fed up with the vitriol, fed up with the paralysis.”

I'm sure that insight and the ability to read a teleprompter is worth $15 mil a year to CBS.

It's a pity Ms. Couric doesn't get out more, expose herself to a slightly more representative group of what she refers to as the 'great unwashed middle'. She'd find out that what her fellow Americans are really fed up with is being taxed to death, having Big Government on their backs, and watching as Barack Obama and his cronies destroy America's prosperity, disrespect its institutions and choke its future by their insane spending and irresponsible behavior.

And she'd find, to her shock and surprise that they're also rather tired of being patronized and lied to by Leftist media shills like Couric.

Of course, that sort of knowledge would likely be quite uncomfortable for her to process, let alone report on.

( via memeorandum)

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Pelosi And Her Family's Flights Cost US Taxpayers $2.1 Million

Judicial Watch has the info after a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request:

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained new documents from the United States Air Force detailing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s repeated use of United States Air Force aircraft. According to the documents, obtained by Judicial Watch through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Pelosi used Air Force aircraft on 85 flights from March 2009 through June 2010. Members of Pelosi’s family were guests on at least two flights.

Among the highlights from the documents, obtained pursuant to a FOIA request filed on January 25, 2009:

• Pelosi used the Air Force aircraft for a total of 85 trips, covering 206,264 miles, from March 2, 2009 through June 7, 2010. Pelosi, her guests and Air Force personnel logged a total of 428.6 hours on these flights.
• Members of Pelosi’s family were guests on at least two flights. On June 20, 2009, Speaker Pelosi’s daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons joined a flight from Andrews Air Force Base to San Francisco International Air Port. That flight included $143 in on-flight expenses for food and other items. On July 2, 2010, Pelosi took her grandson on a flight from Andrews Air Force Base to Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, which is northeast of San Francisco.

According to previous documents uncovered by Judicial Watch, the Speaker’s military travel cost the United States Air Force $2,100,744.59 over a two-year period — $101,429.14 of which was for in-flight expenses, including food and alcohol.

For example, purchases for one Pelosi-led congressional delegation traveling from Washington, DC, through Tel Aviv, Israel to Baghdad, Iraq May 15-20, 2008 included: Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goose vodka, E&J brandy, Bailey’s Irish Crème, Maker’s Mark whiskey, Courvoisier cognac, Bacardi Light rum, Jim Beam whiskey, Beefeater gin, Dewar’s scotch, Bombay Sapphire gin, Jack Daniels whiskey, Corona beer and several bottles of wine.

Judicial Watch also previously uncovered internal Department of Defense documents (DOD) email correspondence detailing attempts by DOD staff to accommodate Pelosi’s numerous requests for military escorts and military aircraft as well as the speaker’s last minute cancellations and changes. For example, in response to a series of requests for military aircraft, one Defense Department official wrote, “Any chance of politely querying [Pelosi's team] if they really intend to do all of these or are they just picking every weekend?...[T]here's no need to block every weekend ‘just in case’... “The email also notes that Pelosi's office had, "a history of canceling many of their past requests.”

I wonder if the people from her San Francisco District ever feel like they've been...cheated?

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