Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Obama solar power stimulus "success" eclipsed by regulations--will file for bankruptcy

Sunset, Arches National Park
Not even "green energy," a favored caste in the Obama administration's liberal hierarchy, can survive burdensome regulations.

From ABC News:

A California solar panel manufacturer which President Obama had made the poster child of his effort to expand the green economy and grow jobs has filed for bankruptcy, the company announced today.

Solyndra said "global economic and solar industry market conditions" forced it to abruptly shutter its Fremont, Calif., factory and immediately layoff more than 1,100 employees.

"Regulatory and policy uncertainties [emphasis mine] in recent months created significant near-term excess supply and price erosion," Solyndra president and CEO Brian Harrison said in a statement. "Raising incremental capital in this environment was not possible. This was an unexpected outcome and is most unfortunate."
"Less than a year ago, we were standing on what was an empty lot, Obama said of the Fremont factory. "But through the Recovery Act, this company received a loan to expand its operations."

But despite the stimulus cash, the sun has set on Solyndra.

Technorati tags:

From Doug Ross: The Big Lie: Farrakhan-backed Islamist Indiana Rep. Andre Scott foments violence using Alinsky-style propaganda against the Tea Party

Lloyd Marcus at an Indiana TPX rally
From Doug Ross: The Big Lie: Farrakhan-backed Islamist Indiana Rep. Andre Scott foments violence using Alinsky-style propaganda against the Tea Party.

Some background: Scott, a Democratic member of Congress, had this to say about the Tea Party movement:

Some of these folks in Congress right now would love to see us as second-class citizens. (audience members reply, "Yes!") Some of them in Congress right now of this Tea Party would love to see you and me- I'm sorry, Tamron [MSNBC's host Tamron Hall]- hanging on a tree. (audience members reply, "Yes!") Some of them right now in Congress are comfortable with where we were 50 and 60 years ago.
On Friday, the Tea Party Express will hold a rally in Elkhart, Indiana.

Oh, Scott is wrong, wrong, wrong about the Tea Party.

Related posts:

The Tea Party Express comes to Mishawaka, Indiana, part one
The Tea Party Express comes to Mishawaka, Indiana, part two
The Tea Party Express comes to Mishawaka, Indiana--part three

Technorati tags:

Huntsman unveils jobs strategy, "Time to Compete: An American Jobs Plan"; NLRB targeted

Cedar Breaks, Utah
Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman has been struggling to gain traction in his quest to win the Republican nomination for president. But he has a jobs plan. It includes many items that will almost certainly be absent from President Obama's jobs re-pivoting, such as tax cuts and a pushback on regulations.

Here's my favorite part of Huntsman's plan, which Obama will never agree with:

The NLRB's policy is a reckless assault upon our nation's free-market system. Gov. Huntsman will immediately instruct the NLRB to stop pursuing this politically-motivated attack on free enterprise, and if they fail to do so, he will replace them.
More from a Huntsman campaign press release:

HUDSON, NH – Jon Huntsman today unveiled his jobs plan, "Time to Compete" aimed at ending the Obama administration's neglect and putting Americans back to work. The multi-pronged plan focuses on tax reform, regulatory reform, energy independence and trade. It draws heavily from Gov. Huntsman's record in Utah where he cut taxes historically, reduced regulations, and created an economic environment that made Utah first in the nation in job growth.

At Gilchrist Metal Fabricating in Hudson, New Hampshire, Governor Huntsman made it clear to those in attendance and to those around the country – it's time for America to compete again.

"The President believes that we can tax and spend and regulate our way to prosperity. We cannot," said Jon Huntsman. "We must compete our way to prosperity. It's time for America to start working again. It's time for America to start making things again."

"It's time for America to stand up and start competing again," Huntsman added. "Meeting our challenges will require serious solutions, but above all, it will require serious leadership – a quality in high demand in our nation's capital, and among my opponents on the campaign trail.”

The Huntsman plan is anchored by a bold tax reform package that eliminates all tax expenditures and will jumpstart America's once mighty engines of industry, provide certainty for American job-creators, and provide the groundwork for a new industrial revolution.

Click here to view the full plan.
Technorati tags:

Perry: They called Reagan dumb too

Ohio, IL
"Even now I wonder what I might have accomplished if I'd studied harder." Ronald Reagan, Eureka College commencement address, 1982.

Now the media "experts" are peddling Texas Governor Rick Perry as dumb too.

From CBS News:

Perry, who has surged in the polls since he announced his candidacy just over two weeks ago, shrugged off the speculation that has become fodder for cable news.

"It's kind of the same old attacks that they made on President Reagan," he said. "The better we do down here in Texas, my bet is the more they're going to attack us and that's fine. I think my record is going to stand the scrutiny of time across the country."

Perry, who made many C's and D's as a student at Texas A&M, turned the attack on the Harvard-educated Barack Obama -- whose transcripts have not been released to the public.

"What's dumb is to oversee an economy that has lost that many millions of jobs, to put unemployment numbers - over his four years will stay probably at 9 percent, to downgrade the credit of this good country, to put fiscal policies in place that were a disaster back in the '30s and try them again in the 2000s -- that's what I consider to be the definition of dumb," he charged.
Related posts:

Ronald Reagan Trail: Returning to Eureka College and the 1982 address

Marathon Pundit's Ronald Reagan Trail

Technorati tags:

Obama's regulations holding back business--even hot dog sponsorships aren't safe

Charlie Brown, Santa Rosa, CA
Peanuts' Charlie Brown once remarked, "A hot dog just doesn't taste right without a ball game in front of it."

But the Obama administration views baseball and hot dogs as an adversarial relationship.

In an op-ed for the Chicago Sun-Times, Chief House Deputy Whip Peter Roskam (R-IL) explains.

Appropriate and responsible regulations play an important policy making role. Yet the Obama administration has turned rule-making into an assault on American businesses and the jobs they create. Right now, 4,257 new regulations are in the works, 219 of which will cost over $100 million annually — 15 percent more than last year.

Just one rule has Chicago White Metal Casting, a Bensenville manufacturer employing 240, fighting to survive in an already tough economy. They'll soon face a restriction regulating greenhouse gases from stationary sources. After the congressional defeat of cap and trade, the EPA began implementing the job-destroying scheme through regulations. The EPA estimates this regulation will cost businesses $132 million the first year and add EPA oversight to 10,000 new facilities.

In an entirely different sector, Illinois-based food producer Sara Lee could soon face lower sales and higher costs and provide fewer jobs if the administration goes through with a particularly overreaching food regulation that would dramatically restrict their ability to advertise many food products — in the name of fighting childhood obesity.

While well-intentioned, the proposed guideline would eliminate Sara Lee-owned Ballpark Hot Dogs' sponsorship of baseball's Detroit Tigers, restrict athletes from appearing on General Mills' Wheaties cereal and restrict Sara Lee from advertising a lean turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread during the Super Bowl, all because people under 18 represent large audiences for these advertisements. The regulation of hot dog advertisements at baseball games won't create a single job.
Related post:

CPAC video: Peter Roskam on gas prices and the EPA

Technorati tags: