Clintonian amnesia ping!
Rahm Emanuel memory lapse, too.
Check out article, and don't miss maggief's # 7.
A lot of work there, maggief. Thanks!
Posted on 10/12/2011 6:02:05 PM PDT by Nachum
Funny, Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel just can’t remember a darn thing about White House involvement in the $535 Department of Energy loan to bankrupt solar company Solyndra.
In an interview with Chicago radio station WLSAM on Tuesday, now-Chicago Mayor Emanuel said that, while he can’t remember anything about Solyndra because he’s so terribly focused on being mayor of Chicago, the investment had nothing to do with “warning signs.”
Emanuel originally dodged questions about Solyndra when asked by WSLAM about it several weeks ago, saying, “I don’t actually remember that or know about it.”
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
The list, ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
Can’t remember anything about a half a Billion dollar deal. Hmmm, wonder if he can remember to breath when he gets up in the morning...
can you feel the breath on your dainty little heels, Rahm?
Dimes to doughnuts, a good portion of the loan ended up in his or Obummer’s campaign fund or some hidden fund for their personal useage. Can’t recall... that don’t cut it, I hope they all go to prison.
So when Cain missed the warning sings of the housing collapse, obama’s boy Chuck Todd says he is a bad candidate.
But when obama “misses” Solyndra, obama’s boy Rahm says, “It’s not about warning signs” and the media will say, “Oh, OK.”
Clintonian amnesia ping!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Here’s the way I look at it,” Emanuel responded. “One is, we worked real hard on saving the auto industry — about 1.2 million jobs. That was an investment of $50 billion. And its turned out against conventional wisdom to be the right thing to do.”
“It’s not about warning signs, etc,” Emanuel continued. “We don’t have a price on carbon. We don’t have a renewable portfolio, so the United States government is left, like it started under George Bush, doing venture capital.”
“Like venture capital, sometimes you’re right, sometimes you’re wrong, and that’s unfortunate,” Emanuel said. “Nobody takes losing money easy. But if you looked at also as an investment, there was $50 billion invested in General Motors and Chrysler, and that turned out to be the right investment.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/12/emanuel-on-solyndra-its-not-about-warning-signs/#ixzz1acbZg7S2
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Speaking of carbon credits, Exelon, et al ...
Useful links/THREADS:
http://209.157.64.200/focus/news/2574706/posts?page=71
Feds seize ShoreBank - ShoreBank to be revitalized as Urban Partnership Bank
Sun Times ^ | 8-20-10 | Sandra Guy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2790598/posts
Issa deepens probe into solar loans
The Hill ^ | October 10, 2011 | Ben Geman
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2606635/posts
Obama taps Chicago’s John W. Rogers Jr to chair President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | October 13, 2010 | Lynn Sweet
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2129244/posts
NRG rejects Exelon’s takeover bid (Obama/Axelrod connection)
Chicago Tribune ^ | 11-9-08 | Joshua Boak
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2524241/posts
Top PR firm for BP tied to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel
Washington Exmainer ^ | 05/30/2010 | Mark Hemingway
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2455497/posts
Why Obama needs Rahm at the top
Washington Post ^ | February 21, 2010 | Dana Milbank
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2215640/posts
(NO LINK)
Mr. Emanuel’s biggest transaction came in late 1999 when he landed an advisory role for Wasserstein in the $8.2 billion merger of two utility companies, Unicom, the parent company of Commonwealth Edison, and Peco Energy, to create Exelon , now one of the nation’s largest power companies.
John W. Rowe, the former chief executive of Unicom who now holds the same position at Exelon , sought out Mr. Emanuel after he went to Wasserstein. Mr. Rowe said he believed Mr. Emanuel would offer a different dimension, providing wisdom on what might pass muster at the governmental level.
“You can’t understand utility transactions without thinking about whether they’ll play or not play in legal and political circles,” said Mr. Rowe, who was first introduced to Mr. Emanuel by Lester Crown, the billionaire scion of Chicago’s influential Crown family.
Tax returns Mr. Emanuel released while first running for office and reported in news articles, along with Congressional financial disclosures, reveal his steep financial ascent while working at Wasserstein. He earned more than $900,000 in 1999, his first year at the firm; nearly $1.4 million in 2000; and $6.5 million in 2001, when he left the firm in midyear to run for Congress. He collected $9.7 million more from the firm in deferred compensation in 2002.
Mr. Emanuel’s annual salary was not especially large but his hefty paydays came from bonuses for the business he brought in, as is customary in investment banking, along with the company’s sale in 2001 to the German Dresdner Bank, which allowed him to benefit from an equity stake, as well a large retention bonus paid to him based on his prior performance.
The bonanza Mr. Emanuel reaped would come in handy when he ran for the House seat vacated by Representative Rod R. Blagojevich, now governor.
Mr. Emanuel contributed $450,000 out of his own pocket to his campaign in the primary, and his leading rival accused him of trying to buy a seat in Congress.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2790598/posts
Issa deepens probe into solar loans
The Hill ^ | October 10, 2011 | Ben Geman
Posted on Monday, October 10, 2011 10:54:49 AM by maggief
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is demanding Energy Department documents relating to more than $4.7 billion in loan guarantees for solar projects approved Sept. 30, the deadline for financing under the stimulus law.
Issa’s quest for documents — spelled out in an Oct. 7 letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu obtained by The Hill on Monday — signals a deepening of his loan guarantee probe, which joins a separate House Energy and Commerce Committee investigation of the failed solar panel manufacturing company Solyndra.
Issa’s letter, noting “concerns” that the $535 million guarantee for Solyndra in 2009 was rushed, says the same questions apply to the four solar power generation projects approved at the end of September.
“$4.75 billion in loan guarantees given on the last day of the program raise similar concerns that the evaluation of loan guarantees may have been rushed to meet the deadline,” Issa writes.
The letter seeks documents about the financing for First Solar Inc., SunPower Corp. and Prologis Inc. by Oct. 21. The documents include Energy Department communications with the companies involved, internal department communications, and communications with the White House.
Issa said on “Fox News Sunday” that his panel is looking for “political interference” in the loan guarantee decisions.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/2786376/posts
* A total of $2.1 billion in guarantees for two California projects developed by First Solar Inc., which promptly announced it was selling both ventures — one to Exelon, one to NextEra.
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2008-01-25/business/0801250129_1_exelon-president-obama-barack
Obama’s Exelon ties merit close look
January 25, 2008|By JAY HANCOCK
Pay no attention to whether Sen. Barack Obama’s ties to Exelon Corp. might make him sympathetic to storing nuclear waste in Nevada. That argument, aired before that state’s Democratic caucuses last week, is a sideshow.
(snip)
But the Exelon-Obama link is especially strong. Exelon employees and others close to the company have given almost $195,000 to Obama, according to the latest records. Exelon is surpassed among corporate Obama donors by only Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers and a couple of other companies, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
One of Obama’s biggest fundraising “bundlers,” packaging money from multiple individuals, is Frank M. Clark, chairman of Commonwealth Edison, the big Illinois utility owned by Exelon. Exelon director John W. Rogers Jr., chief of mutual fund company Ariel Capital Management, also has given thousands to Obama.
There are other reasons to ask if an Obama administration might be too sympathetic to big electricity.
Last year Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, frequently described as Obama’s mentor, single-handedly killed a bill that would have extended price caps for customers of Commonwealth Edison and other utilities.
When he was Bill Clinton’s energy secretary, Obama campaign co-chair Federico Pena vigorously promoted electricity deregulation, promised it would save consumers money and - according to a 2002 story in The Washington Times - personally urged Enron crook Kenneth Lay to lobby the president on the matter.
Exelon’s chief lobbyist, Elizabeth A. Moler, was Pena’s deputy at the Energy Department.
As a new member of the Illinois Senate in 1997, Obama voted for an electricity-deregulation bill that his staff says was supported by consumer groups and was far less than what power providers wanted. Nevertheless, just as in Maryland, deregulation set the stage for price increases beyond what can be explained by higher costs for generation fuels such as coal and natural gas.
(snip)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2129244/posts
Obama’s Exelon ties, Ayers connection
Snippet:
Obama accepted Exelon lobbyist’s cash
In “An asterisk to Obama’s policy on donations”, Dan Morain, of the Los Angeles Times, wrote April 22, 2007:
Exelon spent $500,000 to influence policy in Washington last year. Although Obama took no money from Exelon’s Washington lobbyists, he accepted $1,000 checks from lobbyists John P. Novak and James Monk of Springfield. In Springfield, Novak represents Exelon., and Monk is president of the Illinois Energy Assn., a trade group that represents Commonwealth Edison.
Monk and Novak said they do not lobby in Washington. But their clients care about federal issues, including where to store nuclear waste and what restrictions to place on coal-fired plants.
*snip*
In the 2008 election cycle alone, we turn to OpenSecrets.org, which on August 29, 2008, found 216 entries for Exelon totalling $185,761 for Sen. Obama. A second search that included both Obama’s name and that of his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, found 261 entries for Exelon totalling $228,361.
Quick math shows that only 45 Exelon entries are for McCain for a total of $42,600.
Obama’s Exelon contributions outnumber those of McCain by more than five times.
*snip*
The bundlers, the contributors
We have at least two Exelon bundlers for Obama.
Public Citizen’s White House for Sale website provides general information about the identities of and amounts raised:
* Frank Clark, confirmed most recently as a federal lobbyist in 2000, has raised at least $200,001.00. Additionally, as a Mega-Donor, Clark has contributed an additional $28,500.00 to political action committees supporting Obama.
* John W. Rogers Jr. has raised at least $500,001.00.
In fact, Del Jones wrote August 20, 2008, at USA Today of John Rogers:
John Rogers,.... is an Obama bundler of significance, one of only 36 people who have raised more than $500,000, according to Obama’s website. ....................
~~~
((NOTE: Com Ed is owned by Exelon Corp.))
Obama’s Lobbyist Connection
When Illinois utility Commonwealth Edison wanted state lawmakers to back a hefty rate hike two years ago, it took a creative lobbying approach, concocting a new outfit that seemed devoted to the public interest: Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity, or CORE.
CORE ran TV ads warning of a “California-style energy crisis” if the rate increase wasn’t approved—but without disclosing the commercials were funded by Commonwealth Edison.
The ad campaign provoked a brief uproar when its ties to the utility, which is owned by Exelon Corp., became known.
“It’s corporate money trying to hoodwink the public,” the state’s Democratic Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn said.
What got scant notice then—but may soon get more scrutiny—is that CORE was the brainchild of ASK Public Strategies, a consulting firm whose senior partner is David Axelrod, now chief strategist for Barack Obama.
*snip*
Neither Axelrod nor his partners at ASK ever registered as lobbyists for Commonwealth Edison—and under Illinois’s loose disclosure laws, they were not required to. “I’ve never lobbied anybody in my life,” Axelrod tells NEWSWEEK. “I’ve never talked to any public official on behalf of a corporate client.” (He also says “no one ever denied” that Edison was the “principal funder” of his firm’s ad campaign.)
But the activities of ASK (located in the same office as Axelrod’s political firm) illustrate the difficulties in defining exactly who a lobbyist is.
~~~
Sidebar ~~ another Axelrod dalliance:
###
U. of C. shunning poor patients?
Sen. Barack Obama’s wife and three close advisers have been involved with a program at the University of Chicago Medical Center that steers patients who don’t have private insurance — primarily poor, black people — to other health care facilities.
*snip*
Obama’s top political strategist, David Axelrod, co-owns the firm, ASK Public Strategies, that was hired by the hospital last year to sell the program — called the Urban Health Initiative — to the community as a better alternative for poor patients. Obama’s wife and Valerie Jarrett, an Obama friend and adviser who chairs the medical center’s board, backed the Axelrod firm’s hiring, hospital officials said.
~~~
The beat goes on. Only the faces are changed. Axelrod lobbied, as opposed to BO’s anti-lobbyist campaign staff statements, and has been a surrogate for MO and BO’s interests. Now, BO wants Valerie Jarrett to be his IL senatorial replacement.
Regarding the nuclear/energy issues, I bet public records are available showing whom in Snowbama/Pelosi/Reid et al’s clan are investing into various energy companies.
Clintonian amnesia ping!
Rahm Emanuel memory lapse, too.
Check out article, and don't miss maggief's # 7.
A lot of work there, maggief. Thanks!
Excellent work, maggief!
TYVM!
A sure sign he’s complicit in something unethical and quite possibly, illegal.
Amazing work!!
Great work
Great digging! Bookmarking! You should send this stuff to Issa’s office.
How an Obama fundraiser turned Oklahoma into a personal tax haven
EXCERPT
Kaiser has built his fortune in part through shrewdly playing the Internal Revenue Code. In one six-year period, during which he increased his net worth enough to land him on the Forbes list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, Kaiser reported taxable income to the Internal Revenue Service just once, totaling $11,699 — equivalent to a full-time hourly wage of $5.62.
(snip)
Kaiser's role as a fundraiser for Obama’s 2008 campaign — the Tulsa World reported that, in March 2007, the oilman hosted an event at his home for the candidate, where Obama raised about $250,000 — has led to speculation that the administration intervened on behalf of the ill-fated Solyndra’s loan application to benefit a campaign supporter. (The Center for Public Integrity’s iWatch News has reported that at least 18 other bundlers have ties to businesses poised to profit from the president’ s political agenda, through stimulus money, government contracts, or other spending to promote clean energy technology or green development.)
Obama rewards big bundlers with jobs, commissions, stimulus money, government contracts, and more
http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/2011/white-house-visitor-logs/
Solyndra investor had three White House meetings on energy policy
(snip)
In addition to Solyndra and Unit Corp., Kaiser's foundation has multimillion dollar investments in domestic energy producers Anadarko Petroleum ($205 million), Sandridge Energy ($33.6 million) and Apache Corp. ($18.5 million), as well as a $6.7 million stake in SolarReserve, which won a $737 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.
The nonprofit’s latest SEC filing also showed a $124 million stake in Petroleo Brasileiros , or Petrobas, the Brazilian oil company. In March 2011, President Barack Obama said he wanted the United States to be a major purchaser of Brazilian oil.
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Energy Department approves $737 million solar loan guarantee
http://www.solarreserve.com/aboutUs.html
Investment Partners:
US Renewables Group
Good Energies
Citigroup
PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund (East) LLC
(http://www.pcgfunds.com/people.html
Christopher Bower
Founder/Chairman/CEO
...
Ronald Pelosi
Mr. Pelosi brings to PCG Asset Management a distinguished career in business and public service. He has an extensive background in the securities industry, mutual funds, and private equity. He is an accomplished Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) mediator, and has served in a number of positions as a public official.
Mr. Pelosi is the President of Trenholm Associates, a consulting firm offering specialized services to companies in the financial industry. His investment firm experience includes: Senior Advisor, ReFlow Management; President, Forward Funds, diversified mutual fund group; President, Webster Investment Management Company; President, Longwood Co., member firm, NASD; Representative, Dean Witter & Company, and, Hambrecht & Quist; Board of Trustees, Pacific Corporate Group Private Equity Fund. In addition, he was a Partner of Korn/Ferry International, an executive search firm.
Presently, he serves on FINRA’s national panel of mediators. Formerly, he was on the arbitration/mediation panels of the New York, American, and Pacific Coast Stock Exchanges. He was also on the American Arbitration Association roster of arbitrators.
His record of public service includes: President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors; President of the San Francisco City Planning Commission; Chairman of the Board, San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System; Board of Directors, Golden Gate Highway and Transportation District, Association of Bay Area Governments, and the League of California Cities. He is currently a standing guest lecturer on Mediation for Dispute Resolution at Stanford University.
Mr. Pelosi holds a BA from Stanford University in American History.
...)
Nazarian Enterprises
CalPERS Clean Energy and Technology Fund
Argonaut Private Equity
Credit Suisse
//
How Did Nancy Pelosi’s Brother-in-Law Become No. 2 at PCG?
It is truly amazing the effect being mayor of Chicago has on your memory.
Thanks LucyT for being on top.
..the webs people weave....
SolarReserve LLC, a closely held renewable energy developer, received a $737 million U.S. Energy Department loan guarantee to build a solar-thermal project in Nevada.
The project is being constructed on federal land operated by the Bureau of Land Management and has been financed by both private and federal means. Investors include ACS Cobra and the equity capital practice of Santander, a global financial services and banking leader. The project also closed on a $737 million loan-guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy.
“The support from the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office and our investors has been vital to bring this flagship project to realization,” says Kevin Smith, CEO of SolarReserve. “In addition, we received important cooperation from the state of Nevada and the federal government, along with tremendous support from Nye County and the town of Tonopah.”
http://www.renewgridmag.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.7410
Ronald Pelosi, brother-in-law of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, is number two at an investment firm that has an interest in SolarReserve.
Ronald Pelosi is an executive at Pacific Corporate Group, one of the private equity firms that has plugged more than $100 million into SolarReserve.
The firm has been indirectly caught up in a California pay-to-play scandal, which resulted in it getting fired last fall by the state’s largest pension fund.
Richard Kauffman, the former CEO of venture firm Good Energies — also a SolarReserve investor — who recently joined DoE as a senior advisor.
******
Crony Socialism: Obama Gives $737 Million to Solar Firm Linked to the Pelosi Clan
The $737 million loan guarantee will help finance construction of the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, a 110-megawatt solar-power-generating facility in Nye County, Nev. The project is sponsored by Tonopah Solar, a subsidiary of California-based SolarReserve.
Crescent Dunes is the latest solar project to receive a loan guarantee from the Energy Department in recent weeks. The department announced a $1.2 billion loan guarantee to Abengoa Solar for a solar generation project in California and a $150 million loan guarantee to 1366 Technologies for a Massachusetts solar manufacturing project earlier this month.
The Energy Department says the project will result in 600 construction jobs and 45 permanent jobs.
On SolarReserve’s website is a list of “investment partners,“ including the ”PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund (East) LLC.”
As blogger American Glob quickly discovered, and Hemingway points out, PCG’s number two is none other than “Ronald Pelosi, a San Francisco political insider and financial industry polymath who happens to be the brother-in-law of Nancy Pelosi, the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives.”
One of SolarReserve’s other investment partners is Argonaut Private Equity.
“Steve Mitchell and Argonaut Private Equity might have a chance to recoup some of their losses in the Solyndra debacle now that the Department of Energy has given a $737 million dollar loan guarantee to a company backed by Argonaut that also lists Mitchell among its board of directors,” reports Joel Gehrke of The Washington Examiner
Mitchell had served on the Solyndra Board of Directors (and what a great job he did there). Not surprisingly, he serves as Managing Director for Argonaut Private Equity, a company that invested in Solyndra through the LLCs parent company.
After Solyndra went under, two Democratic members of the U.S. House asked that Mitchell testify about Solyndra. Though he has not appeared before Congress, he has “been asked to provide documents to Congress” pertaining to Solyndra.
Carnahan, a member of the prominent Missouri Democratic family, has been tapped by the Obama campaign as its chief Missouri fundraiser, reports the online news source.
“He is chairman of the board of Wind Capital Group, a wind energy company that makes it corporate headquarters in St. Louis. He formerly was president and CEO of the company.”
Last year, Wind Capital’s Lost Creek Farm facility in northwest Missouri received a $107 million tax credit from the Treasury Department, among many such wind operations receiving support from from stimulus funds. Tom Carnahan is the son of former Missouri governor Mel Carnahan and former U.S. senator Jean Carnahan. He is also the brother of current Missouri secretary of state, Robin Carnahan.
“Can’t recall... that don’t cut it, I hope they all go to prison.”
####
That would require a Republican Party that actually gave a sh!t about America, and was as active in saving our country, as the Democrat-Communists are in destroying it.
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