Even for the Obama administration, today’s news dump ($1.3 trillion deficit, the demise of the CLASS Act, and war in Uganda) is something to behold. On top of everything, the White House has released its list of major campaign bundlers for the third quarter of the year.
One name in particular warrants a mention.
Steve Spinner, who served as a Obama fundraiser in 2008, was also an adviser for the Department of Energy loans program responsible for the Solyndra debacle. As it turns out, he was also married to a partner at the law firm representing Solyndra during its loan application.
But despite signing an ethics agreement in which he pledged not to involve himself in any negotiations regarding the Solyndra loan, a series of e-mails reveal that Spinner was rather intimately involved in the negotiations and was advocating on behalf of the company.
“Any word from OMB?” Spinner wrote to a DOE staffer in reference to the Solyndra loan, which was awaiting approval from the Office of Management and Budget. “I have the OVP [Office of the Vice President] and WH [White House] breathing down my neck on this.”
Spinner was one of several department officials pushing to get a final decision on Solyndra in August 2009, ahead of a scheduled press event at which Vice President Joe Biden praised the company as “exactly what the Recovery Act [stimulus package] is all about.”
“How f***ing hard is this?” he wrote to another department official on Aug. 28, 2009. “What is he waiting for? Will we have it by the end of the day?”
On the Obama administration latest list of campaign fundraisers, Spinner moved up a category, ranking among those who have raised more than $500,000 this quarter. In the second quarter of this year, Spinner raised “only” somewhere between $250,000 and $500,000.
Good to hear that Spinner has not let an FBI investigation, Congressional probe and widespread (though not that widespread) media scrutiny surrounding the company he once lobbied for (and which employed his wife) distract him from his fundraising duties.
There is no end to this systemic cronysim and corruption.
It's worth mentioning again the recent federal court case in Texas. A Dallas business owner was involved in a civil dispute and paid millions of dollars to lawyers, and when he objected to additional fees after settling the case, they had a “friendly” judge seize all of his possessions, without any notice or hearing, and essentially ordered him under “house arrest” as an involuntary servant to the lawyers. The business owner has been under this "servant" order for 10 months and is prohibited from owning any possessions, prohibited from working, etc..
...and some quotes from the judge:
THE COURT: "I'm telling you don't screw with me. You are a fool, a fool, a fool, a fool to screw with a federal judge, and if you don't understand that, I can make you understand it. I have the force of the Navy, Army, Marines and Navy behind me."
THE COURT: "You realize that order is an order of the Court. So any failure to comply with that order is contempt, punishable by lots of dollars, punishable by possible jail, death"
External Link
has an explanation of this case.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere is no end to the cronyism and corruption.
It's worth mentioning again the federal court case in Texas. A Dallas business owner was involved in a civil dispute and paid millions of dollars to lawyers, and when he objected to additional fees after settling the case, they had a “friendly” judge seize all of his possessions, without any notice or hearing, and essentially ordered him under “house arrest” as an involuntary servant to the lawyers. The business owner has been under this "servant" order for 10 months and is prohibited from owning any possessions, prohibited from working, etc..
...and some quotes from the judge:
THE COURT: "I'm telling you don't scr w with me. You are a fool, a fool, a fool, a fool to scr w with a federal judge, and if you don't understand that, I can make you understand it. I have the force of the Navy, Army, Marines and Navy behind me."
THE COURT: "You realize that order is an order of the Court. So any failure to comply with that order is contempt, punishable by lots of dollars, punishable by possible jail, death"
External Link
has an explanation of this case.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI usually tell clients that building a case at trial is like adding grains of sand to one side of a balance scale. Bit by bit, the scale starts to tip. The scale here is starting to tip; the only real question is when anyone in the MSM is going to show the courage to discuss it. When Obama's cronyism in fact becomes mainstream news -- and sooner or later it must -- then even OWS won't be able to save him, and probably won't want to.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe MSM has been discussing it from the beginning. In fact, Stiles links a WaPo article for this post.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusehey, morning joe has covered this, ok? and concluded its just not a story. end of case. move along. see? the MSM do cover this. and cover it up.
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Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWell, there's "discussing it", and then there's "withering wall-to-wall 24/7 coverage in excruciating, damning detail" (which is what a Rep. administration would receive for a lesser incident).
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere should be investigative reporters knocking one another over to get to the truth on this story, among many others. But then you would have to expose Obama, the first black president, as incompetent in the least, or more likely, corrupt. How would that play with the liberal "base"?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThank you for calling it cronyism. There's nothing capitalist about this.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe cronyism and corruption just keeps coming.
It's worth mentioning again the federal court case in Texas. A Dallas business owner was involved in a civil dispute and paid millions of dollars to lawyers, and when he objected to additional fees after settling the case, they had a “friendly” judge seize all of his possessions, without any notice or hearing, and essentially ordered him under “house arrest” as an involuntary servant to the lawyers. The business owner has been under this "servant" order for 10 months and is prohibited from owning any possessions, prohibited from working, etc..
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe cronyism and corruption just keeps coming.
It's worth mentioning again the federal court case in Texas. A Dallas business owner was involved in a civil dispute and paid millions of dollars to lawyers, and when he objected to additional fees after settling the case, they had a “friendly” judge seize all of his possessions, without any notice or hearing, and essentially ordered him under “house arrest” as an involuntary servant to the lawyers. The business owner has been under this "servant" order for 10 months and is prohibited from owning any possessions, prohibited from working, etc..
External Link
has an explanation of this case.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDoes that Friday doc dump still work? It seemed to work for Clinton pre-Internet, but anymore it either doesn't seem to matter, or causes an Internet gestation that breaks free on Monday.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt would be nice to know whose contributions Spinner "bundled". I would bet that there are more than one Solyndra executive or investor on that list.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think you mean the "aptly named Steve Spinner..."
Ironically enough, what the OWS protestors miss is this kind of hand-in-glove cooperation between corporate ripoff artists and government officials seeking to pad their nest with post-office employment prospects, or maybe votes toward re-election. The Tea Party folks seem to miss the point that a proper role of government is to facilitate open & honest markets - a good place for a regulator would be in policing the applicants for, and crooked guarantors - of fraudulent loans like this. It isn't corporations or government versus the people, it's about an oligarchy, basically, versus the people, and it doesn't matter whether the oligarchy is in office or business, they are destroying both capitalism and our form of government as they loot.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJust infuriating and disgusting that this stuff has no legs with any other media outlet in the whole country. It's utterly demoralizing to know that our system of government has degenerated into this money grubbing and grasping class of Kleptocrats with no conscience.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBoth the occupy protestors, and the tea party oppose the bailouts. The big difference is the occupy people direct their anger at the wall street people that asked for and took the bailout money, while the tea party directs their anger at the corrupt politicians that gave them the money. Personally I think the tea party has the more correct target.
We cant have prosperity without capitalism, and I mean real capitalists, like Steve Jobs. Yes, crony capitalists are bad, but they cant exist without people in gov to give them handouts. But we definitely can have prosperity without crooked politicians who give handouts to crony capitalists. Get rid of the crooked politicians that give out the crony capitalist handouts, and the crony capitalists will go with them.
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