The Obama administration and its cronies have had a busy week.
Saving the Environment
It looks like the half-a-billion dollars in taxpayer money that President Obama cycled through the Solyndra management was just the beginning. The Solyndra stock holders are making efforts to clean up toxic waste at a facility the company owned, in order to sell the facility, but Solyndra walked away from toxic chemicals by the barrelful in a facility they’d been renting. The EPA may end up having to clean the mess at taxpayer expense.
The irony of the Solyndra situation is rich. The administration justified the subsidies to Solyndra by claiming that the company would help save the environment. Solyndra management cycled some of the money back to the President in the form of campaign contributions, presumably to help him fight the good fight for environmental protection. Now the money is gone, the company is gone, the Solyndra executives and the President’s campaign are all richer, and the environment is stuck with barrels of unlabeled poisons and lead-contaminated buildings and machinery.
The best description of this federal program, as with so many other federal programs, is the old Ronald Reagan quip: “The most terrifying words in the English language are ‘We’re from the government and we’re here to help’.”
Speaking of fighting global warming…
Here’s an amusing glimpse into the moral compass of a liberal. Global warming alarmist Dr. Peter Gleick stole documents, came under suspicion, lied his way out, and then basked in the praise of his fellow liberals.
On the voter fraud front,
Gangster General Eric Holder has now officially blocked implementation of Texas’ voter ID law despite (or perhaps because of) the widespread voter fraud that’s been going on in Democrat-leaning districts in Texas.
Over in Vermont, James O’Keefe (who caused such embarrassment to ACORN a couple years ago) videotaped poll workers passing out ballots to anyone who walked into the polling place, without asking for a voter registration card, proof of age, or any other form of ID. The State of Vermont is now threatening O’Keefe with criminal prosecution.
The Chicago Way
As of Thursday Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is a prison inmate, just like George H. Ryan, his immediate predecessor in the Governor’s office. Ryan and Blagojevich are the third and forth Illinois Governors to do time in recent years. Is Al Capone really dead? Chicago and the whole state seem to be just as corrupt in the twenty-first century as they were all through the twentieth.
Obamacare vs private insurance:
The Congressional Budget Office has confirmed what we all knew already. President Obama was lying when he promised us that his Obamacare plan would allow people who like their existing health plans to keep them.
Encyclopedia Britannica goes all digital
Here’s an interesting news item that has nothing to do with politics. After 244 years, Encyclopedia Britannica has quit producing paper-and-ink encyclopedias. No more trees need to die for students to look things up for their class projects.