Free Republic

A Daily Caller investigation has found that in addition to the failed company Solyndra, at least four other solar panel manufacturing companies receiving in excess of $500 million in loan guarantees from the Obama administration employ executives or board members who have donated large sums of money to Democratic campaigns. And as questions swirl around possible connections between political donations and these preferential financing arrangements, the Obama White House suddenly began deflecting The Daily Caller’s questions on Wednesday to the Democratic National Committee. Asked Wednesday to comment on the connection between large Democratic donors and Obama administration loan guarantees to...

[...]Take AT&T, for example. The telecommunications giant is pushing for the supercommittee to increase wireless spectrum, reform corporate tax and minimize government regulation. The company, which is also in the midst of fighting for its merger with T-Mobile, bundled $71,000 for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee through the first six months of this year and $20,750 last year for Washington Sen. Patty Murray, who co-chairs the supercommittee and runs the campaign arm that is charged with maintaining a Senate majority next November. In fact, Murray received the most bundled contributions of any individual supercommittee lawmaker since last year, also taking...

If you want to find out what happened with Solyndra you have to follow the money. I did. The half billion dollars of taxpayer dough that is probably lost in Sol came from the Federal Financing Bank (“FFB”). It’s worth a look at this bank to see what else is going on. FFB is a bank that is owned and controlled by the US Treasury. The chairman of the Board is the TSec. (Tim Geithner). With the (big) exception of the Post Office all of the loans at FFB are guaranteed by government agencies. Technically speaking, FFB has no risks...

Vice President Biden is slated to deliver the keynote address at a Las Vegas energy summit hosted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) later this month. The fourth annual National Clean Energy Summit will also feature remarks from Center for American Progress President John Podesta, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and California Gov. Jerry Brown (D), among others. “The Obama administration has proven time and again it understands the importance of building a competitive 21st-century economy through clean energy investments and policies that are focused on putting people back to work, reducing costs for consumers and...

A slew of organizations funded by billionaire George Soros have been utilizing the alleged News of the World phone hacking scandal in the U.K. to call for investigations of News Corporation's U.S. interests, particularly Fox News Channel. The Center for American Progress, heavily financed by Soros, said it gathered 12,000 signatures demanding to know whether News Corp. reporters violated U.S. law by obtaining phone records in the U.S. The center is reportedly highly influential in helping to craft White House policy. It is led by John Podesta, who served as co-chairman of Obama's presidential transition team. Podesta this week told...

At least three White House advisers and officials, including President Obama's regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein, have ties to an effort funded by billionaire George Soros to push for a new, "progressive" U.S. Constitution WND first reported last week that Sunstein's wife, Samantha Power, has been a champion of a Soros-funded doctrine, entitled "responsibility to protect," which was used by Obama to justify engaging in an international military alliance to bomb Libya. As the National Security Council special adviser to Obama on human rights, Power reportedly influenced Obama in his decision. Now it has emerged that Sunstein has maintained extensive ties...

Politico published an eye-opening report on Saturday by Ben Smith about “Media Matter’s war against Fox.” Smith wrote that the organization continues to transform itself into an exclusively Fox News-battling group.Media Matters founder David Brock told Politico that his organization’s activism has developed into a “strategy of containment.” This strategy includes extensive work to compile intelligence on the employees of the cable news channel. (Snip)“Somebody in that organization is giving us primary source documents.”

George Soros has been a brilliant investor over the years. As befits many hedge fund operators, he uses leverage to magnify his returns. But in his case, leverage has a double meaning. Leverage can refer to the debt Soros assumes when he makes his investments. But it can also refer to the practice Soros has engaged in, both overseas and in America, to use his money and influence to bolster his political power -- power that he then uses to boost returns on his investments. He is not just a hedge fund billionaire but a crony capitalist kingpin who puts...

US Union Boss Trumka Influencing Egyptian Revolution With International Labor Org That Calls for Redistribution of Wealth, ‘Social Justice’ and ‘New World Order’ http://www.theblaze.com/stories/us-union-boss-trumka-influencing-egyptian-revolution-with-international-labor-org-that-call-for-redistribution-of-wealth-social-justice-and-new-world-order/

A blog hosted by the Center for American Progress, headed by top Obama ally John Podesta, is blasting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for its tangential ties to the Egyptian government while ignoring the extensive lobbying activities of John’s brother Tony Podesta for the Egyptian government. “There is at least one powerful, multinational entity that has continually stood by Mubarak and the Egyptian elite and has continually fought efforts to democratize the country,” says the blog post, weaving a complicated tale of the Chamber’s Egypt affiliate lobbying on behalf of the Mubarak regime. The problem is: Mubarak’s top Washington ally...

<p>A new Labor Department plan shows the president still has wide power to implement an anti-business agenda.</p> <p>Because President Obama will now have a tough time getting his liberal agenda through a more Republican Congress, many Democrats are urging him to ram it through using the executive branch's unilateral power.</p>

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has a Christmas gift in store for the phone and cable industry: it may move ahead on its controversial net-neutrality regulations three days before Christmas. An FCC source confirmed on Friday that the commission plans to push its December meeting back by a week, meaning it will fall on the 22nd of the month. That's the same meeting in which analysts say the agency may move forward on its controversial net-neutrality proposal.

John Podesta is the head of the CenteR for American Progress, also known as CRAP. CRAP is another liberal think tank dedicated to overturning the core principles upon which America was established. Among their asserted concerns are: Job creation and economic competitiveness Educational excellence A clean energy future and energy independence Quality affordable health care Consumer protection The home foreclosure crisis Accountable government delivering results at lower cost Sustainable security for the nation Podesta likens CRAP to a "think tank on steroids." One of its major donors is George Soros, so immediately one knows that CRAP has the end...

The liberal Center for American Progress doesn’t believe significant GOP gains in the House and Senate should stop the President from implementing more of his polices. The group released a report Tuesday suggesting ways Obama can bypass Congress to accomplish a progressive agenda, and it cites the president’s power as commander-in-chief to make its point. “I think most of the conversation since the election has been about how President Obama adjusts to the new situation on Capitol Hill,” Center for American Progress head and former Bill Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta told the Daily Caller. “While that’s an important...

Nearing the midpoint of Michelle Obama’s inaugural term, there is a reported shake-up going on amongst the first lady’s senior staff. Obama’s chief of staff, Susan Sher, is reportedly stepping down after having been on the job for just under a year and a half. Before her White House stint, Sher served as Obama‘s superior at the University of Chicago Medical Center and as an attorney for Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s administration. Stepping into Sher’s shoes is another close confidante of the Obamas: Tina Tchen. ...Tchen has led of the White House Office of Public Engagement, an operation overseen by...

In my last post, I discussed George Soros, the self-hating Jew. Today, I focus on George Soros, the naturalized American citizen who hates his adopted country. As Soros put it in his own words, the United States is a “declining superpower” whose “democracy is in deep trouble.” Soros advocates policies that would rearrange the entire world financial order. He believes in “global governance,” led by the United Nations. To help advance his global governance objectives, Soros has to do something about the United States, which he regards as The main obstacle to a stable and just world order To help...

George Soros funds the Center for American Progress, which has been characterized as Barack Obama's Ideas Factory. John Podesta, its head, led the transition team when Barack Obama became President. The Center has also become a hiring hall for the Obama team, filling its positions with former employees (among these was controversial Van Jones -- who now is back at the Center). Apparently, George Soros and his Center are upset that the American people placed a roadblock in their plans when we rose up and painted the nation red. The Center now is providing a blueprint of ways Barack Obama...

Former President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff John Podesta, now the head of the Center for American Progress, called on President Obama to push forward with his agenda using federal agencies and executive branch power Tuesday, even though Democrats were dealt a blow in the recent midterm elections. Podesta said the American people want the president to move forward with his agenda. “I think most of the conversation since the election has been about how President Obama adjusts to the new situation on Capitol Hill,” Podesta said. “While that’s an important conversation, it simply ignores the president’s ability to use...

... George Wills stated in a recent writing the opinion that Obama is a spent volcano. The evidence is legion and growing. His swaggering and lecturing foreign leaders is mocked and now routinely rebuffed. His domestic policies ridiculed and reviled. His control of congress crippled. His only remaining usefulness to Soros is that of a rear guard continuation of sewing seeds of diversity within the American populace. Here too his effectiveness is shown by polls to be dwindling precipitously. Obama has served several functions consistent with ‘Soros’ strategy, the quotation marks indicating that the strategy is a group effort. Their...

The "movers and shakers" of Washington DC have apparently seen the light. Well connected PAC's, even those connected to Clinton and Obama, have started shifting money to the right: Major political action committees and employees of the nation's largest business empires have dramatically shifted their money to the right. A detailed analysis of 2010 campaign cycle contributions by the Houston Chronicle shows that Republicans are catching up with Senate Democrats in campaign fundraising. Donations to the Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)-led Senate Democratic Campaign Committee (DSCC) have dropped 25 percent this year alone. "Employees of 126 businesses that had donated money...