Free Republic

No need to bid. A marketing firm with close ties to President Obama and his political campaigns was given the lucrative job of designing Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” anti-obesity logo without having to go through the government contract bidding route. Judicial Watch reported the firm, Shepardson, Stern & Kaminsky, was awarded the $100,000 job, in violation of federal contracting rules. And that’s not just Judicial Watch’s interpretation of law — federal officials admitted the deal was an “unauthorized commitment,” in documents obtained by the government watchdog from a Freedom of Information Act request. In a written statement, Judicial Watch reported...

Green energy is supposedly the future. Why, solar energy will break out and become a major energy source any year now, or any decade now. Or maybe never. It has been the subject of national attention ever since President Obama made it a cornerstone of his 2008 presidential campaign. Of course, what Obama claims is in energy policy has worked out to be more a of a growth-constraining, government money-wasting endeavor than anything else. The Denver Post carried the original story on Thursday of how the federal government's first attempt at a solar auction went. The headline was accurate: "1st...

Well, this is awkward. An auction in Colorado for the right to build solar energy plants produced no bids, according to the Denver Post. "We are going to have to regroup and figure out what didn't work," Maryanne Kurtinaitis, renewable energy program manager for the federal Bureau of Land Management’s Colorado office told the Post. But Ken Borngrebe, environmental permitting manager for First Solar, said the problem likely had to do with market uncertainties surrounding solar projects. "It may come down to the lack of confidence in the market for solar today," Borngrebe said. The problems for solar energy stem...

The president is committed to the idea of anthropogenic global warming. Man-made carbon emissions, he believes (or pretends to believe), cause global temperatures to rise, and this temperature increase is destructive. By reducing man-made carbon emissions, temperatures can be made to fall. Every part of this logic is flawed, if not utterly false. Do carbon emissions cause global warming? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is largely composed of climate researchers with what would seem a strong vested interest in promoting the global warming agenda. Yet even the IPCC has a 5% doubt that human activities affect the climate.

A judge on Friday denied an effort by former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to postpone his corruption trial, which he said had been compromised by inflammatory comments posted online by prosecutors. Nagin’s argument for a delay stemmed from online postings that recently prompted a federal judge to order a new trial in a murder case involving five New Orleans policemen convicted in connection with the shooting deaths of two unarmed people at Danziger Bridge after Hurricane Katrina. … Nagin, who was mayor during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is accused of receiving kickbacks in exchange for city contracts, and wire...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - CAIR’s Money Laundering SchemePosted By Matthew Vadum On September 24, 2013 @ 12:50 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 3 Comments The Muslim Brotherhood’s front group in the United States conceals donations from Islamist governments overseas by maintaining a complex web of shell organizations, according to a new report.Right under President Obama’s nose, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) engages in an ACORN-like game of corporate musical chairs with its convoluted corporate structure and head-spinning funding machinations, Charles C. Johnson reports in the Daily Caller. Among the bombshell allegations, previewed Friday in FrontPage, are that...

Former TVA Vice President 58-year-old Masoud Bajestani plead guilty to conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and Iranian Transactions Regulations, and two counts of filing false income tax returns. Bajestani sentencing is set for January 15, in U.S. District Court in Knoxville. Bajestani faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for conspiracy to violate the IEEPA, and three years for each count of filing a false tax return. He also faces a maximum fine of $250,000 on each count. In February 2013, a federal grand jury charged Bajestani, with conspiracy, violations of the IEEPA...

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded US$7 billion of contracts to 22 companies for the right to develop and sell solar energy to the US Army. The winning companies include Gehrlicher US, Siemens and Sunpower. Once projects are developed it is understood winning companies will bid against eachother to supply solar power with the remainder of the ring-fenced US$7 billion available for purchasing. The “multiple-vendor, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price, non-option, non-multi-year contracts” are specifically to be used for solar power. The projects will be developed on land owned or under the jurisdiction of the DoD.

Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia and former owner of an electric car company now under federal investigation, once paid a visit with three other advisers to the same White House “green energy” official who helped secure more than $500 million in guaranteed loans for Solyndra, the now-bankrupt solar panel manufacturer backed by a prominent Barack Obama fundraiser. White House visitor records reviewed by Watchdog.org indicate that McAuliffe met with Greg Nelson, the former associate director for energy, environment and technology, at the White House on October 13, 2010. While the substance of the meeting is unknown,...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl2002.aspx Treasury Targets Major Money Laundering Network Operating Out of Colombia 7/9/2013 Trade Based Money Laundering Network Supported Narcotics Traffickers Ayman Joumaa and Evaristo Linares Castillo WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced the designation of Colombian nationals Isaac Perez Guberek Ravinovicz and his son, Henry Guberek Grimberg, as well as 29 other individuals and entities, including companies located in Colombia, Panama, and Israel, as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers (SDNTs). These 31 individuals and entities together form a money laundering network responsible for laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in...

"Lebanese Canadian Bank to Pay $102 Million in Hizballah Laundering Case" SNIPPET: "The Beirut-based Lebanese Canadian Bank ("LCB") will pay $102 million as part of a settlement reached this week with federal prosecutors. The LCB was accused in a December 2011 complaint of funneling money to the Lebanese terrorist group Hizballah as part of a global money-laundering scheme. The "settlement shows that banks laundering money for terrorists and narco-traffickers will face consequences for their actions, wherever they may be located. This type of money laundering network fuels the operations of both terrorists and drug traffickers, and will continue to use...

You know what the IRS is really great at? Breaking its own laws. In addition to targeting conservative groups, the corrupt government agency has also been singling out disabled veterans. They do this by using banks to launder and then stealing the veterans’ disability checks. Shameful. The Veterans Disability Act of 2010 exempts VA disability from withholding of any sort. But the IRS has been stealing disabled veterans’ money anyways. Kevin Lake is a 60% disabled veteran of the Iraq War. A few months ago, he noticed that his VA disability check had not been deposited, and that his bank...

It was a brazen bank heist, but a 21st-century version in which the criminals never wore ski masks, threatened a teller or set foot in a vault. In two precision operations that involved people in more than two dozen countries acting in close coordination and with surgical precision, thieves stole $45 million from thousands of A.T.M.'s in a matter of hours. In New York City alone, the thieves responsible for A.T.M. withdrawals struck 2,904 machines over 10 hours starting on Feb. 19, withdrawing $2.4 million. The operation included sophisticated computer experts operating in the shadowy world of Internet hacking, manipulating...

The Investigative Project on Terrorism has learned that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi headlined a Democratic Party fundraiser with leaders of Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood front groups in May of this year. The invitation-only fundraiser was sponsored by Reps. Keith Ellison, D-Minn.; Andre Carson, D-Ind.; and Steve Israel, D-N.Y., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and took place on the evening of May 16, 2012, at the W Hotel in Washington D.C. In attendance were about 20 members of a Syrian dissident group and 10 officials representing Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas front groups. Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl1908.aspx Treasury Identifies Kassem Rmeiti & Co. for Exchange and Halawi Exchange Co. as Financial Institutions of “Primary Money Laundering Concern” 4/23/2013 In First Use of Section 311 Against a Non-Bank Financial Institution, Treasury Acts to Protect the U.S. Financial System from Foreign Exchange Houses Tied to Global Narcotics and Money Laundering Networks and Hizballah WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today named two Lebanese exchange houses, Kassem Rmeiti & Co. For Exchange (Rmeiti Exchange) and Halawi Exchange Co. (Halawi Exchange), as foreign financial institutions of primary money laundering concern under...

The daughter of President Barack Obama's controversial former pastor was indicted on Wednesday on charges of money laundering and lying to federal authorities, a Justice Department spokeswoman said. Jeri L. Wright, 47, the daughter of Jeremiah Wright, was accused of participating in a fraud scheme led by a former suburban police chief and the chief's husband that involved a $1.25 million state grant, according to the Attorney's office for the Central District of Illinois in Springfield.

<p>The daughter of President Barack Obama's controversial former pastor was indicted on Wednesday on charges of money laundering and lying to federal authorities, a Justice Department spokeswoman said.</p>

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Jeremiah Wright’s daughter has allegedly been a naughty little money launderer, and if true, it would appear as though her chickens are coming home to roost. Jeri Wright, 47, faces two counts of money laundering, two counts of making false statements to officers and seven counts of giving false grand jury testimony. She couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Governor Palin posted a statement on Facebook about today’s news that Fisker Automotive is laying off three-fourths of its U.S. workers: Once again, the American public lost when the Obama administration attempted to pick “winners and losers” in the free market. Today the electric car company Fisker Automotive, which received nearly $200 million in taxpayer money, is laying off three-fourths of its U.S. workers.The Anaheim, CA-based start up has failed at pretty much every level – especially when it comes to the company’s ultra expensive luxury electric hybrid, the Karma (what a name!), which is assembled in Finland and received...

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state’s controversial, $3 billion stem-cell research agency, has yet to follow recommendations from a December report by the Institute of Medicine, a division of the National Academy of Sciences. The report, which urged the agency to overhaul its board of directors, did not fully convey the magnitude of CIRM’s failure—but it did confirm that CIRM might be better described as Conflict of Interest Research Money. Almost all members of the CIRM board, investigators noted, “are interested parties with a personal or financial stake in the allocation of CIRM fundings.” In fact, CIRM directed...