Bloodthirsty Liberal

Waste, fraud and abuse

Take your blood pressure meds before you read this.

Many window-making companies struggle because of the recession’s effect on home building. But one little window company, Serious Materials, is “booming,” says Fortune. “On a roll,” according to Inc. magazine, which put Serious’ CEO on its cover, with a story titled: “How to Build a Great Company”.

Vice President Joe Biden appeared at the opening of one of its plants. CEO Kevin Surace thanked him for his “unwavering support.” “Without you and the recovery (”stimulus”) act, this would not have been possible,” Surace said.

Biden returned the compliment: “You are not just churning out windows; you are making some of the most energy-efficient windows in the world. I would argue the most energy-efficient windows in the world.”

Gee, other window-makers say their windows are just as energy efficient, but the vice president didn’t visit them.

Biden laid it on pretty thick for Serious Materials: “This is a story of how a new economy predicated on innovation and efficiency is not only helping us today but inspiring a better tomorrow.”

Serious doesn’t just have the vice president in his corner. It’s got President Obama himself.

Company board member Paul Holland had the rare of honor of introducing Obama at a “green energy” event. Obama then said: “Serious Materials just reopened … a manufacturing plant outside of Pittsburgh. These workers will now have a new mission: producing some of the most energy-efficient windows in the world.”

How many companies get endorsed by the president of the United States?

How many indeed? Read on.

When the CEO said that opening his factory wouldn’t have been possible without the Obama administration, he may have known something we didn’t. Last month, Obama announced a new set of tax credits for so-called green companies. One window company was on the list: Serious Materials. This must be one very special company.

But wait, it gets even more interesting.

On my Fox Business Network show on “crony capitalism”, I displayed a picture of administration officials and so-called “energy leaders” taken at the U.S. Department of Energy. Standing front and center was Cathy Zoi, who oversees $16.8 billion in stimulus funds, much of it for weatherization programs that benefit Serious.

The interesting twist is that Zoi happens to be the wife of Robin Roy, who happens to be vice president of “policy” at Serious Windows.

Of all the window companies in America, maybe it’s a coincidence that the one which gets presidential and vice presidential attention and a special tax credit is one whose company executives give thousands of dollars to the Obama campaign and where the policy officer spends nights at home with the Energy Department’s weatherization boss.

Or maybe not.

There may be nothing illegal about this. Zoi did disclose her marriage and said she would recuse herself from any matter that had a predictable effect on her financial interests.

But it sure looks funny to me, and it’s odd that the liberal media have so much interest in this one company. Rachel Maddow of MSNBC, usually not a big promoter of corporate growth, gushed about how Serious Materials is an example of how the “stimulus” is working.

When we asked the company about all this, a spokeswoman said, “We don’t comment on the personal lives of our employees.” Later she called to say that my story is “full of lies.”

But she wouldn’t say what those lies are.

On its website, Serious Materials says it did not get a taxpayer subsidy. But that’s just playing with terms. What it got was a tax credit, an opportunity that its competitors did not get: to keep money it would have paid in taxes. Let’s not be misled. Government is as manipulative with selective tax credits as it is with cash subsidies. It would be more efficient to cut taxes across the board. Why should there be favoritism?

How’s that transparency in government thing working? Windows are transparent, right? So the government is supporting this window maker to create more transparency…

Oh never mind.

- Aggie

No surprise here that the party of namby-pamby is the party of nimby:

The Obama administration signaled a sudden urgency yesterday to resolve the nine-year dispute over building a wind farm off Cape Cod, as US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced he would summon key parties to a meeting next week in hope of concluding the decision process within two months.

The announcement was made minutes after the Cape Wind project appeared to suffer an unexpected setback, when the National Park Service agreed with two Native American tribes that Nantucket Sound is eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places because of its cultural and spiritual significance to the tribes.

The decision caught many by surprise, because listing in the Register, which affords extra protection against development, is normally reserved for structures or smaller, more specific locations.

Yeah, I wondered where they got that idea (false modesty very much regretted):

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) says she plans to introduce legislation today to establish two national monuments on roughly 1 million acres of Mojave Desert outback that is home to bighorn sheep and desert tortoises, extinct volcanoes, sand dunes and ancient petroglyphs.

Its centerpiece, Mojave Trails National Monument, would prohibit development on 941,000 acres of federal land and former railroad company property along a 105-mile stretch of old Route 66, between Ludlow and Needles.

…

Some congressional Republicans accused Feinstein of engaging in a not-in-my-back-yard campaign when her plans for legislation restricting renewable energy projects in California deserts surfaced earlier this year.

Feinstein must be smacking her forehead and saying “Injuns! Why didn’t I think of injuns!”

Declaring scrub land like this as a national monument is an audaciously hopeful idea:

So it’s dead certainty that this vista should be off limits as well:

Look, build your [bleeping] windmills or don’t, capture the sun’s mother[bleeping] power or not. I don’t give a [bleep]. Just don’t get between me and the next mahogany log I’m about to throw on the fire—and don’t… waste… my… [bleeping]… time.

Cool, you might say. Great idea:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) says she plans to introduce legislation today to establish two national monuments on roughly 1 million acres of Mojave Desert outback that is home to bighorn sheep and desert tortoises, extinct volcanoes, sand dunes and ancient petroglyphs.

Its centerpiece, Mojave Trails National Monument, would prohibit development on 941,000 acres of federal land and former railroad company property along a 105-mile stretch of old Route 66, between Ludlow and Needles.

Awesome, right?

Look again: what part of Dianne Feinstein don’t you get?

Some congressional Republicans accused Feinstein of engaging in a not-in-my-back-yard campaign when her plans for legislation restricting renewable energy projects in California deserts surfaced earlier this year.

The senator countered that she “strongly” supports such projects, but only if they are built on “suitable” lands.

In an effort to avoid conflicts, BrightSource Energy Inc. and Stirling Energy Systems recently scrapped plans to build massive solar and wind farms on a panoramic stretch of the proposed Mojave Trails monument known as Sleeping Beauty Valley.

“We had a project within what we understand to be the boundaries of the monument, but we recently decided to withdraw it,” said Sean Gallagher, Stirling’s vice president of marketing strategies and regulatory issues. “We’re trying to be respectful of what Sen. Feinstein has been doing in that area of the desert.”

Translation: we knew better than to cross Knuckles Feinstein.

Funny how they thought they they could get practically unlimited solar power from the desert. But Sen. Feinstein was just following Ted Kennedy’s example. So what if the wind blows consistently in Nantucket Sound? Doesn’t mean we got to put windmills in his back yard.

Oil in Alaska? Leave it there; we’ll buy Saudi Arabia’s. Coal in West Virginia? Why don’t they get green jobs?

Hope you’re happy, America. If the wait for the MRI under ObamaCare doesn’t kill you, the cold from our energy policy will. But you will have died for the sand dunes and the extinct volcanoes, so it will have been worth it.

You shall not crucify mankind on a cross of methane (that’s all the hint you get):

Gas could be the calvary in global warming fight

An unlikely source of energy has emerged to meet international demands that the United States do more to fight global warming: It’s cleaner than coal, cheaper than oil and a 90-year supply is under our feet.

It’s natural gas, the same fossil fuel that was in such short supply a decade ago that it was deemed unreliable. It’s now being uncovered at such a rapid pace that its price is near a seven-year low. Long used to heat half the nation’s homes, it’s becoming the fuel of choice when building new power plants. Someday, it may win wider acceptance as a replacement for gasoline in our cars and trucks.

Natural gas’ abundance and low price come as governments around the world debate how to curtail carbon dioxide and other pollution that contribute to global warming.

Even better, we don’t have to send in the Marnies to secure it, it’s cheaper than curd, and cleaner than buy-two-minus coal.

Ask me how

President Obama proposed a new program Tuesday that would reimburse homeowners for energy-efficient appliances and insulation, part of a broader plan to stimulate the economy.

The administration didn’t provide immediate details, but said it would work with Congress on crafting legislation. Steve Nadel, director at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, who’s advising on the bill, said a homeowner could receive up to $12,000 in rebates.

The proposal is part of the President’s larger spending plan, which also includes money for small businesses, renewable energy manufacturing, and infrastructure.

We know energy efficiency “creates jobs, saves money for families, and reduces the pollution that threatens our environment,” Obama said. “With additional resources, in areas like advanced manufacturing of wind turbines and solar panels, for instance, we can help turn good ideas into good private-sector jobs.”

The program contains two parts: money for homeowners for efficiency projects, and money for companies in the renewable energy and efficiency space.

The plan will likely create a new program where private contractors conduct home energy audits, buy the necessary gear and install it, according to a staffer on the Senate Energy Committee and Nadel at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

Big-ticket items like air conditioners, heating systems, washing machines, refrigerators, windows and insulation would likely be covered, Nadel said.

I guess I’ll wait a few months before installing that new boiler…

- Aggie

Oh dear, what’s an environmental activist to do?

The administration of Governor Deval Patrick, in a sharp disagreement with Patrick’s handpicked Senate appointee, said yesterday that it would be a mistake for President Obama to grant US Senator Paul G. Kirk Jr.’s request to delay federal approval of the Cape Wind project.

In a letter to Obama earlier this month, Kirk, who has largely shied away from divisive issues during his two months in office, urged the Obama administration to hold off on a decision until a federal panel can devise comprehensive guidelines for development in the nation’s waters. But officials from the Patrick administration said the governor strongly disagrees with Kirk’s request and urges quick approval. “After eight years of thorough review and as the world convenes shortly in Copenhagen to tackle climate change, the governor believes the time is now to move forward with this landmark clean energy project - the only offshore wind project that has the potential to be built in President Obama’s first term,’’ Patrick’s secretary of energy and environmental affairs, Ian A. Bowles, said in a statement yesterday.

Nice touch, Guv. That’s going to hit President Obama right in the breadbasket (or a little lower). How could he resist such an appeal?

Here’s how:

In taking up the fight against Cape Wind, Kirk is continuing a battle long waged by Kennedy, his close friend, who strongly opposed the construction of 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound.

“He’s taking a stand that Senator Kennedy would have taken,’’ said Ross K. Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers, who added that Kirk is sending a message that “even though the person who was the most prominent opponent of it is gone, the opposition to it still remains.’’

Each tower, each turbine, would be a urination on the grave of the late Senator Ted. Kirk is just holding up his end of the (Faustian) bargain to do as Ted would have done.

Liberal on liberal crime is always so sad.

I have to say, now that Ted is gone, that building a wind farm in one of the most scenics spots in America is a dubious proposition. I’m not saying it’s wrong—midwesterners probably object to windmills befouling the prairiescape, yet they live with them—but the Kennedy side of the argument is not without merit (wouldn’t catch me saying that when he was alive).

I just don’t trust these imbeciles to get anything right:

IT ALWAYS seemed bizarre to think that cutting down trees and burning them for fuel could be a good way to reduce carbon emissions. And yet both the Kyoto climate change treaty and a key bill in the US House look favorably on generation not just from biofuels such as ethanol but also from so-called biomass, including wood. Fortunately, scientists are beginning to consider biomass with a more skeptical eye. Late last month, Massachusetts launched a study on whether biomass power-generation plants are sustainable - the crucial question in the debate on four plants proposed for the western part of the state.

These plants could burn wood left over from landscaping, milling operations, and forest-thinning projects. But these unobjectionable sources might not be enough to feed the plants; their operation, critics worry, would require major cuts in private and public woods, reducing the forests’ ability to absorb carbon dioxide. The state’s study, which will be reviewed by an independent advisory panel, should ensure that the state does not give a boost to biomass plants that harm both the atmosphere and the state’s forests.

Calling trees “biomass” was a nice try, but they’re still trees. And the insatiable demand for power would surely lead to more chopping and more sawing. There’s room for some, I’m sure, but when we’re on the verge of paying Brazil not to cut their trees, it seems illogical to be cutting our own.

Who thinks up these ideas?

Because liberals will believe anything…

State officials deliberately underestimated the cost of Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s plan to lure green energy companies to Oregon with big taxpayer subsidies, resulting in a program that cost 40 times more than unsuspecting lawmakers were told, an investigation by The Oregonian shows.

Records also show that the program, a favorite of Kulongoski’s known as the Business Energy Tax Credit, has given millions of dollars to failed companies while voters are being asked to raise income taxes because the state budget doesn’t have enough to pay for schools and other programs.

The incentives are now under intense scrutiny at the Oregon Department of Energy, which is scrambling to curb their skyrocketing costs.

It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. I take it back; it is funny. People are such dopes.

- Aggie

I’ve been hearing reference to this for a few days, but only now did I get around to posting something about it:

When I was asked earlier about the issue of coal…under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket…even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad, because I’m capping greenhouse gasses, coal power plants, natural gas…you name it…whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retro-fit their operations.

That will cost money…they will pass that money on to the consumers. You can already see what the arguments are going to be during the general election. People will say Obama and Al Gore …these folks…they’re going to destroy the economy.

Yes they will and yes you did.

Here, see for yourself:

He even elaborated:

What I’ve said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else’s out there.

I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.

Not shy about it, was he?

And he still got elected. I think he must have been the most surprised of anyone on Election Day. That we were ready, willing, and able to elect a black person to the office, no one had any serious doubt. That we were prepared to elect the Anti-Chirst, well, I had higher expectations.

But he told what he was going to do, people, and now he’s gone ahead and done it. How do you like him now?

President Obama shuffles up and down the hallways of the West Wing in overalls with a name tag that reads “Vern”, carrying a step ladder and a box full of (mercury-laced) compact fluorescent bulbs:

The first step we’re taking sets new efficiency standards on fluorescent and incandescent lighting. Now I know light bulbs may not seem sexy, but this simple action holds enormous promise because 7 percent of all the energy consumed in America is used to light our homes and our businesses.

…

And by the way, we’re going to start here at the White House. Secretary Chu has already started to take a look at our light bulbs, and we’re going to see what we need to replace them with energy-efficient light bulbs.

He’s been in office for more than six months, and he’s only now ordering his Asian pool boy to change the bulbs? Even I don’t procrastinate like that, and some day I’ll get around to telling you how much I procrastinate!

Anyhow, do you think Michelle is going to let those neurotoxin bombs near Sasha and Malia? Not bloody likely.

But does anyone remember what candidate Obama thought about changing light bulbs? (Of course not, that’s why you come to Aggie and me.)

While most of Newsweek’s behind-the-scenes Special Election Project reporting reveals serious campaign issues on both sides, there’s one funny moment when Barack Obama talks candidly about dumb debate questions:

The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for them during the Democratic primaries, Obama was recorded saying, “I don’t consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, ‘You know, this is a stupid question, but let me … answer it.’ So when Brian Williams is asking me about what’s a personal thing that you’ve done [that’s green], and I say, you know, ‘Well, I planted a bunch of trees.’ And he says, ‘I’m talking about personal.’ What I’m thinking in my head is, ‘Well, the truth is, Brian, we can’t solve global warming because I f—ing changed light bulbs in my house. It’s because of something collective’.”

But today, he f—ing changed light bulbs, or his man servant did. Not that light bulbs will stop global warming. Not that there is global warming. Not that he cares.

Anyway, how did we miss that use of the word “collective”? He meant it in the Soviet sense.

Apparently members have five days to change their votes

This is a list of Republicans who voted for the bill and their states. If you wanted to, you could contact their offices and ask them to reconsider.

Mary Bono Mack R (CA)
Mike Castle R (DW)
Mark Steven Kirk R (IL)
Leonard Lance R (NJ)
Frank LoBiondo R (NJ)
John McHugh R (NY)
Dave Reichert R (WA)
Chris Smith R (NJ)

- Aggie