Key Republican backed loans to failed solar
energy firm

Republicans keep on getting caught with their pants down over their Solyndra scandalmongering:

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who has criticized the administration for its failed loan guarantee to the firm Solyndra, urged the Energy Department to approve funding assistance for a Michigan solar company that said last week it is halting operations.

Upton and 13 other Michigan lawmakers sent a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu in December 2009 recommending Auburn Hills-based United Solar Ovonics for a loan under President Obama?s economic stimulus bill.

The loan was never approved by the Energy Department, but Upton?s advocacy for United Solar stands in contrast to his recent skepticism about the government?s clean-energy loan guarantee program.

Upton has pursued two lines of argument against the administration over Solyndra. First, he says the government shouldn't pick winners and losers. Second, he says Solyndra shouldn't have been given the loan because it was a company in trouble. This news exposes the hypocrisy of both arguments?not only did he urge the government to "pick a winner," he urged it to pick a winner that was on the cusp of failure.

My point here isn't to bash Upton for having backed the firm. My point is that instead of hypocritical partisan demagoguery, what America needs from Republicans is renewed commitment to developing clean and sustainable sources of energy. Remember, Bush signed the legislation that created the loan guarantees in the first place, and it was the Bush administration that originally supported the Solyndra loan application. This is one Bush policy they ought not abandon.

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How Corporations Fight the "Insurgency"

By @KYYellowDog

Just as data collection and surveillance of citizens by corporations is far more extensive and dangerous than that by government, so is the way corporations attack citizens who refuse to obey their One Percenter masters.

Robert Johnson at Business Insider:

Fracking is a contentious business. The process of injecting chemicals at high-pressure into the earth to pull out gas and oil has prompted as many reports condemning it as there are declaring it safe.

Homeowners concerned for the safety of their well water, and environmentalists, who believe the drilling even caused the Oklahoma earthquake, have formed movements against the practice, and it was these efforts that came up for discussion at last week's oil industry conference in Houston.

Filled with industry insiders all facing the same challenges and concerns, speakers lectured openly on how they handled the American public in communities where they drilled.

There, recording it all, was environmental activist Sharon Wilson, director of the Oil & Gas Accountability Project.

In the following recording, given to CNBC, one presenter tells the crowd to download a copy of the Army's counterinsurgency manual. "Because," he said, the movement opposing the industry is an "insurgency."

In this next recording (also given to CNBC) the speaker tells listeners that his organization maintains several military veterans who served as psychological warfare specialists. These former "psy ops" soldiers, he explains, are using their skills in Pennsylvania.

Wilson paid full price for attendance to the conference and wore a nametag identifying herself and her organization.

In his forum called "Designing a Media Relations Strategy To Overcome Concerns Surrounding Hydraulic Fracturing,"  Range Resources communications director Matt Pitzarella explains how to "overcome stakeholder concerns" surrounding fracking.

"We have several former psy ops folks that work for us at Range because they're very comfortable in dealing with localized issues and local governments," Pitzarella said. "Really all they do is spend most of their time helping folks develop local ordinances and things like that. But very much having that understanding of psy ops in the Army and in the Middle East has applied very helpfully here for us in Pennsylvania."

It was during Anadarko Petroleum's manager of external affairs, Matt Carmichael's, session on "Understanding How Unconventional Oil & Gas Operators are Developing a Comprehensive Media Relations Strategy to Engage Stakeholders and Educate the Public" that he suggested his colleagues:

"Download the U.S. Army-slash-Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual, because we are dealing with an insurgency," Carmichael said. "There's a lot of good lessons in there and coming from a military background, I found the insight in that extremely remarkable."

To be clear on exactly what Carmichael meant when he said they're "dealing with an insurgency" we obtained a copy of the FM 3-24 - the final edition of the 2006 Counterinsurgency manual provided to psy ops soldiers. We substituted the word government with corporation.

" ... insurgency has been a common approach used by the weak to combat the strong. At the beginning of a conflict, insurgents have the strategic initiative ... the insurgents generally initiate the war. They may strive to disguise their intentions, and the potential counter-insurgent will be at a great disadvantage until [corporate] leaders recognize that an insurgency exists and are able to determine its makeup and characteristics to facilitate a coordinated reaction.

While the [corporation] prepares to respond, the insurgent is gaining strength and creating increasing disruptions throughout the state. The existing [corporation] normally has an initial advantage in resources, but that edge is counterbalanced by the requirement to maintain order. The insurgent succeeds by sowing chaos and disorder anywhere; the [corporation] fails unless it maintains order everywhere.

Check out FM 3-24 below, section 1-1 provides the overview of an "insurgency." It provides an interesting insight into how corporations impacting the daily lives of US citizens conduct policy.

h/t Crooks and Liars.


Read The Full Article:
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orporations-fight-the-insurgency

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Today on The Stars Hollow Gazette

Regular Features-On This Day In History November 19 by TheMomCatPunting the Pundits by TheMomCatThese Weekly Features-This Week In The Dream Antilles by: davidsethHealth and Fitness News by: TheMomCatRandom Japan by mishimaThis is an Open ThreadThe Stars[...]

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#OccupyUCDavis: Police in Riot Gear Use Chemical
Agent on Students

video details and more

A video of police in riot gear pepper spraying demonstrators is spreading after 10 Occupy protesters were arrested on the University of California, Davis campus Friday, Sacramento NBC station KCRA reported.

The demonstrators were protesting the dismantling of the "Occupy UC Davis" encampment that was set up in the school's quad area.

"Police came and brutalized them and tore their tents down and all that stuff. It was really scary. It felt like there was anarchy everywhere," said student Hisham Alihbob.

Police told Sacramento's KTXL TV station that the students were given until 3 p.m. Friday to remove their tents from the campus. When students refused, police arrived at the given time. Students sat down cross-legged and locked arms when cops showed up and the pepper spraying began.

Students chanted at the officers, "Shame on you, shame on you!" KTXL said.

UC Davis officials said the group is allowed to occupy the quad for as long as they want, but cannot camp, KCRA reported.

A faculty member of UC Davis, Nathan Brown, an Assistant Professor as well as well as a current Board Member of the Davis Faculty Association, issued a public letter condemning the police brutality suffered by the UC Davis students and calling for the immediate resignation of Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi.

Professor Brown also organized the student rally that was sanctioned by the Davis Faculty Association.

Brown writes:

"Without any provocation whatsoever, other than the bodies of these students sitting where they were on the ground, with their arms linked, police pepper-sprayed students. Students remained on the ground, now writhing in pain, with their arms linked."

"What happened next?"

"Police used batons to try to push the students apart. Those they could separate, they arrested, kneeling on their bodies and pushing their heads into the ground. Those they could not separate, they pepper-sprayed directly in the face, holding these students as they did so. When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats. Several of these students were hospitalized. Others are seriously injured. One of them, forty-five minutes after being pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood."

I urge you to read the letter in its entirety here.

David Waldman - Contributing Editor at Daily Kos and the Editor-in-Chief of Congress Matters - also known as "KagroX" - explains that for civilians in California, using tear gas weapons except in self-defense is punishable by imprisonment in a state prison for 16 months, or by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment. He also writes that the California law "exempts cops who've completed state training from restrictions on use of pepper spray by regular ppl." Further, that "The use of chem, riot-control agents is also banned under the Geneva Conventions, Rule 75 "and against US ROE." Waldman is also A non-practicing attorney, a former Capitol Hill aide and Hotline staff writer.

So the question remains what in the hell is in the state training, and were training standards violated?

From a local CBS affiliate, "UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza said officers used force out of concern for their own safety after they were surrounded by students."

As you watch the videos of the attack on the students, do you see fear or "concern for their own safety" as the students were sprayed? But then, perhaps they didn't really show the "concern" until they forced open the students mouths and sprayed down their throats.

Here is another angle of that chemical assault on peaceful student protesters at UC Davis:

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UC Davis arrests 10 peaceful students, Chancellor
still employed

What parent would want to send their son or daughter to UC Davis at this time? You have to wonder about what is going on with a number of universities that treat their students so poorly. As John mentioned earlier, this will surely also have an impact on fundraising which is always going on with universities. There is no acceptable reason why the university should tolerate such brutal tactics against peaceful students. People need to be fired immediately at UC Davis, starting with Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi and the campus police chief. MSNBC.com:

A video of police in riot gear pepper spraying demonstrators is spreading after 10 Occupy protesters were arrested on the University of California, Davis campus Friday, Sacramento NBC station KCRA reported.

The demonstrators were protesting the dismantling of the "Occupy UC Davis" encampment that was set up in the school's quad area.

"Police came and brutalized them and tore their tents down and all that stuff. It was really scary. It felt like there was anarchy everywhere," said student Hisham Alihbob.

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Can Romney Beat Obama Questions Abound As Likely
GOP Nominee Doubles Down on Denial

Mitt Romney has consistently been the candidate of the 1%:

“Mitt Romney’s Money Shot,” as The Atlantic puts it.  Photo: Bain Capital/The Boston Globe

Intrade prediction markets puts Romney’s chances of being the GOP Presidential nominee at 69.5% as the rest of the field implodes and unelectable Newt Gingrich (!) is the latest to surge.

Romney is moving to the right on core issues that matter to the Tea Party like climate change.  In October, Romney started flipping to denial (see Likely GOP Nominee Asserts, ?We Don?t Know What?s Causing Climate Change?).

But now he’s started pushing the truly inane hard-core denier talking points, as the Boston Globe reports today:

Discussing climate change in response to an audience question, he mocked the notion of asking the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.

?I exhale carbon dioxide,?? Romney said. ?I don?t want those guys following me around with a meter to see if I?m breathing too hard.??

Seriously.  This from a guy who, just in June, said “I think it?s important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may well be significant contributors to the climate change and the global warming that you?re seeing.”

Why is Romney pandering to the most extreme part of the GOP when he just about has the race sewed up, and the rest of the general public believes in global warming and climate action?

Intrade has Obama at almost dead even to be reelected — 50.5%.  Who do you think will be the next President?

Related Post:

• McKibben: Will Global Warming Be an Election Issue After All?

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UC Davis Chancellor Called to Resign After Police
Pepper Spray Students

Each and every day some police action infuriates and breathes new life into this movement. Just when you think the movement might go stale and the message of ?We are the 99%? will no longer pack the punch that it has had over the last two months, some[...]

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'I Haven't Had a Gaffe,' Bachmann Insists

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Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann says she would be the best person to face President Barack Obama in the general election because she hasn't had a single gaffe.

"[A]s people are looking at the candidate that is the most conservative and the most consistent candidate, I've been that candidate," the Minnesota Republican told Fox News host Greta Van Susteren Thursday.

"I haven't had a gaffe or something that I've done that has caused me to fall in the polls. People see in me someone who's genuinely a social conservative, a fiscal conservative, a national security conservative and a tea partier. I'm the whole package. And when it comes to the best Republican who take on Barack Obama and not have any clunker in my record to be able to take him on, it's me."

"Well, you've had a few -- you've had a few little gaffes, maybe not recently," Susteren noted.

"Well, I got Elvis Presley's birthday wrong, but I don't think that's a disqualifying factor for being president of the United States," Bachmann replied.

As Talking Points Memo notes, Bachmann's list of gaffes is gaffes and misstatements is extensive.

The candidate has confused actor John Wayne with serial killer John Wayne Gacy; suggested that Hezbollah was creating missile sites in Cuba; said there was a "very real concern" that vaccines cause mental retardation; insisted that waterboarding was justified like nuking Japan; said she would end "Great Society" programs to make the U.S. more like China; accused GOP candidates of being "frugal socialists;" predicted that deceased Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi "may be" still in power if she were president; asserted that the best way to end teen bullying would be to abolish the Dept. of Education; refused to say fellow candidate Mitt Romney was a Christian; proposed eliminating all taxes; told a man with "no teeth" to rely on charity; advised that hurricanes were God's warning about government spending; mistakenly claimed the Battle of Lexington and Concord was fought in New Hampshire instead of Massachusetts; asserted that the founding fathers "worked tirelessly" to end slavery; and told a Christian radio host that Americans fear "the rise of the Soviet Union."

And those are just a sampling of the things she has said during the past year.

Prior to that, Bachmann has warned about government re-education camps; said that President Franklin D. Roosevelt caused a recession with the Hoot-Smalley Act; compared her supporters to the "charge of the Light Brigade" -- which actually sustained major losses and eventual defeat in the Crimean War -- insisted that President George Bush only added $400 billion to the national debt, explained that 100 percent of the U.S. economy was private before Obama took office; and called for an investigation into "anti-American" members of Congress.

But perhaps the candidate doesn't feel that any of those were gaffes.

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Obama touts Asia-Pacific trade deals, U.S. job
creation in weekly address

If we want an economy that?s built to last and built to compete, we have to change that. We have to restore America?s manufacturing might, which is what helped us build the largest middle-class in history. That?s why we chose to pull the auto industry back from the brink, saving hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process. And that?s why we?re investing in the next generation of high-tech, American manufacturing.

President Barack Obama gave this morning's address from Indonesia, where he's been busy working on trade deals, and the setting allowed him to tie together some of his most common themes: trade, jobs and manufacturing.

These agreements will help us reach my goal of doubling American exports by 2014?a goal we?re on pace to meet. And they?re powerful examples of how we can rebuild an economy that?s focused on what our country has always done best?making and selling products all over the world that are stamped with three proud words: ?Made In America.?

This is important, because over the last decade, we became a country that relied too much on what we bought and consumed. We racked up a lot of debt, but we didn?t create many jobs at all.

He touted his swing through the Asia Pacific region and his meeting with leaders in Hawaii, saying that the agreements finalized this week will save millions of U.S. jobs and will help meet the goal of doubling our country's exports by 2014.

He closed the weekly address on a familiar note?acknowledgement of tough times, belief in U.S. resiliency and optimism for the future.

We may be going through tough times, but as I?ve said time and time again, the United States still has the world?s most dynamic economy, the finest universities, the most innovative companies, and the hardest-working people on Earth. We can compete against anybody?and we can win. As President, I intend to make sure that happens by doing everything I can to give American workers and businesses the chance to succeed.

The full transcript can be found beneath the fold and on the White House website.

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NBA stars to play in Obamas basketball campaign
fundraiser

NBA stars to play in Obama’s basketball campaign fundraiser A number of NBA stars including Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard have committed to play in an exhibition game to raise money for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. Read more here: NBA stars to play in Obama’s basketball campaign fundraiser

Read The Full Article:
http://glciii.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/nba-stars-to-play-in-obamas-basketball-cam
paign-fundraiser/

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