Push to highlight Solyndra came from top levels of White House, according to e-mails

[alp227]

Source: Wash. Post

White House staff discussed in e-mails that either President Obama or his former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel were eager to help spotlight a solar company in early 2009, despite numerous internal warnings that the company could be financially unstable, according to newly obtained e-mails.

The administration was working to arrange a way for Obama to headline a news conference in early September to announce that Solyndra of Fremont, Calif., had won a $535 million government loan to spur clean energy firms — the first his administration had provided.

“Ron said this morning that the POTUS definitely wants to do this (or Rahm definitely wants the POTUS to do this?),” one White House staffer told an Obama scheduler on Aug. 17, 2009, referring to Ron Klain, former chief of staff for Vice President Joe Biden.

The correspondence suggests that, at the most senior levels and down the chain, the fledgling Obama administration had significant interest in using the loan to highlight progress under the Recovery Act. The e-mails were produced as part of a congressional probe and provided by a government source Friday.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/solyndra-obama-and-rahm-emanuel-pushed-to-spotlight-energy-company/2011/10/07/gIQACDqSTL_story.html

[KoKo]

1. Probably Rahm and the Ops...and Obama was taking their lead.

Everything these days is about Politics. Whether it's Repugs or Dems. Gotta keep that "Image" going.

Disgusting...all of it. Hype, Advertising to the Gullible.

[bread_and_roses]

2. none of this is good - but where's the fiscal accountability for the nuclear/coal/oil/gas corps?

This sounds like insider politics fueled by donor $$ at its finest - just like every other administration in our $$ soaked and driven "democracy." I guess this never happened under the illegitimate little Commander Codpiece pretender POTUS shrub? Right.

But where's the same accountability to taxpayers for all the subsidies/tax wriet-offs/whatever and gov't guaranteed insurance for nuclear? Is nuclear profitable on its own? I don't think so. How about our the gazillions in subsidies/tax write-offs/whatever for the dirty energy companies? Would they be profitable without them? How about taking a look at that? Or don't taxpayer $$ count when they go to support the REAL players with big $$ to give to the Pols?

[annabanana]

3. Sorry.. This is more manufatured outrage designed to distract

from the massive...massive theft perpetrated by the biggest corporations on the planet... Remember, Bernie Madoff was small potatoes on the family farm

[No Elephants]

4. No reason why we shouldn't walk and chew gum at the same time.

Half a billion to one company is nothing to sneeze at. Neither was Madoff.

And the bailout of Wall Street could never have happened--at least not as it did--without federal legislation by a Democratic Congress, approved by both Bush and Obama.

And then, there was repeal of Glass Steagall under Clinton and other de-regulation by every administration since at least 1980. And the bailout of health insurers, big PHRMA and big health care.

IMO, it's very convenient for politicians--even voters--to point the finger solely at Wall Street (now that public pressure finally forces them to point it somewhere) or at the opposite Party.

But K Street and ALL its beneficiaries are as much to blame as Wall Street, if not more so.

[Zax2me]

5. Solyndra loan deal: Warnings about legality came from within Obama administration

Source: Washington Post

Energy Department officials were warned that their plan to help a failing solar company by restructuring its $535 million federal loan could violate the law and should be cleared with the Justice Department, according to newly obtained e-mails from within the Obama administration.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/solyndra-obama-and-rahm-emanuel-pushed-to-spotlight-energy-company/2011/10/07/gIQACDqSTL_story.html

[Downwinder]

6. A land mine planted in the Bush Administration?

[rsmith6621]

8. Gotta Stop Blaming Bush....

...Obama has had the White House long enough to make a difference in the 99% lives and yet we are struggling and have not got a bail out.

This happened on Obama's watch so it is baby it was his Energy Department. Like Obama we cant look backwards.

[certainot]

13. bush/rove people still corrupt all depts. it didn't start on his watch and the

story points out that it is all a lot more complicated. was obama reviewing all these loans?

just like with holder and the guns story, 1000 unchallenged radio station can blame obama for everything and half the 'progressives' will go along with it because it is so loud and no one can yell the perspective back at them loudly enough.

the only reason solyndra is a big deal now is because 1000 unchallenged coordinated radio stations can scream about it for two weeks to turn another molehill into a mountain. the other media we have couldn't do that. one story after another about bush corruption came up and still are and nothing in the MSM. they make anything they want into an attack on obama until the MSM starts to lather and someone has to get fired. and only the right can do that, with their media advantage.

it has to be seen in perspective.

[buckrogers1965]

7. Obama restructed the loans

Can't blame Bush for this one.

[certainot]

11. he did it himself?

[buckrogers1965]

15. Where does the buck stop?

Authority can be delegated, not responsibility.

[certainot]

16. there can't be two standards. republicans set the standards and the 'left' lets them. the RW cotrols

all messaging and get to have everything both ways.

team limbaugh get a free speech free ride to sell the solyndra case nationwide for weeks as a money laundering political operation for obama and more and more people are believing that. that's from a party that basically operates as the political arm of our biggest corporations and banks, where money completely rules and they vote lock step 99%.

blaming obama for this is like blaming him for not cleaning up the DOD and CIA and ending decades of torture and torture rationalization in his first year.

it's not reasonable and it doesn't not take into account 8 years of infiltration of all govt depts by bush fundamentalists and toadies whose loyalties are not to we the people.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[No Elephants]

29. Someone restructured this--for the worse, too. What happened to him or her or them?

[jimmydwight]

9. No guarantees are without risks, this

one just happened to be one that didn't work. I see nothing wrong with this. What about the ones that haven't failed?

[Ship of Fools]

10. This is how I see it as well. SHOULD be a non-story, but of course the

media need the political conflict ... blah blah blah

[certainot]

12. exactly , but this is where those 1000 ignored, coordinated radio stations work so well

[No Elephants]

28. Some risks are reasonable, from a business standpoint. Others aren't.

You don't see venture capitalists taking risks like this one. Not venture capitalists who survive, anyway.

It's over half a billion.

At what level should we expect government to treat our money with respect?

BTW, what would the federal government have made if Solyndra had been wildly successful? Enough to justify taking a greater risk than the stockholders?

The risk of a federal guaranty is the same as the risk the borrower takes. Greater, in fact, because the borrower has limited liability, while the federal government does not. Also, many of the stockholders get salary, while taxpayer investors do not.

There has been less publicity about that, but I'd bet my bottom dollar the potential upside was nowhere near the potential downside--and the risk was too great.

[FarLeftFist]

14. Just appoint a new head to the Dept. of Energy. Case closed.

[certainot]

17. like van jones and shirley sherrod and AG holder, whenever the repubs want to get someone fired

they use their radio blowhorn to turn some molehill into a mountain until enough MSM and 'progressives' join in or it becomes too distractive for the obama admin to do anything else and they have to be replaced.

limbaugh's trophy room is full of the swiftboated.

[No Elephants]

20. So, the only ones helpless in all this are the Obama administration?

I didn't follow the Van Jones situation closely so I will not comment on that. Not sure what you're claiming about Holder, so I can't respond to that either.


Howeveer, the WH couldn't fire Sherrod fast enough. Made her pull her car over to the side of the road so they could fire her instantly. Wouldn't even wait until she arrived safely at wherever she was driving to.


They could have cared about the truth enough to wait until they found it out and then defended her, but it was easier to throw her under the bus ASAP--or so they thought as soon as the NAACP called.

If a Democratic President throws folks under the bus as soon as some Republican or other lies, that is very lame indeed.

[certainot]

21. acorn was swiftboated for years, unnoticed by the left. van jones for months. the lies established

and ignored by the left, on 1000 repeating radio stations. the acorn end was only triggered by the video hit- the base attack has been going on since the bush admin started using it as an election theft distraction/excuse (voter fraud by dems).

shirley sherrod was a similar variation. they turned a molehill or lie into a mountain and the media joins in and makes it impossible to deal with anything else. in sherrod's case vilsak? jumped the gun and acknowledged it later. was obama to blame for that too, because sherrod was swiftboated like so many others while the 'left' ignores the device used to kick their ass for 20 years?

there are hundreds of examples of republican wins that only happened because the collective left ignores the right's best weapon, the only one that can do the repetition all over the country.

holder is getting set up the same way, relative to that ATF guns-for-drug dealers deal (that the bush admin was doing). my guess is that thousands of screaming dittohead teabaggers are yelling to media and politicians and each other about it, as prompted by the talk radio gods.

[sweetapogee]

22. fair treatment

would you gaze into your crystal ball and tell us how this situation is finally resolved?

[certainot]

23. there must be some organized effort to finally challenge that RW smear and lie machine

it has to start with a recognition of the problem- the fact that RW talk radio does the groundwork repetition and volume for just about all republican obstructio, disinformation , and swiftboating, and they depend on it.

it is now being used to counter and distort and attack all OWS protests on national and local levels.

i just heard the local denver blowhard on the denver broncos/colo buffaloes/colo rockies sports station, the guy who precedes limbaugh, call for the police to break up the growing camp in denver. all over the country these dicks are going to help pressure cops and local govts to get rough on the protestors, from behind their call screener-protected giant microphones.

the stations are the problem and can be pressured to look for balance and add progressive talkers or convert to something else.

protests at appropriately located stations might help.

asking local sponsors if they agree with the racism and global warming denial does help- many are just there for business reasons- i have known some owners who found alternatives after being called.

universities and pro sports teams need to be shamed for broadcasting on and therefore endorsing those stations and their hate, racism, lies, and global warming denial.

limbaugh needs to be referenced as much as possible by dems and elevated to head of the GOP and - he needs to be exposed - more than just pointing out an occasional outrage.

those a a few suggestions- global warming won't wait for legislation to break up media monopolies, and it won't happen as long as the worst offender isn't even on the radar for the 'left'.

[sweetapogee]

24. my question

my question was not how do we handle the Solyndra situation but rather how do you certainot think the situation will be resolved? I don't know the answer to this question but if I were a puke and the opposite party were trying to get another stimulus to pass, at that time I would make a lot of political hay and ask for an accounting of the loan, both the funds and the terms. So I'm trending towards this issue going south for dems but I don't have enough insights into this matter.

[certainot]

25. the'll keep saying solyndra over and over and over and progressives will too

and it will take it's place as another event/item turned into a negative for dems all out of proportion to what it deserves, and the facts of who might have really been responsible will be irrelevant. IMO

[sweetapogee]

26. ok

so your reading of the tea leaves indicates that the end of the Solyndra event is that it will just fall out of the news cycle and be forgotten. The only negative, if it could be called a negative is that the pukes will scream about it but not have any kind of support to persue the matter. In due time it will just fade out of the american psyche.

Thanks :<)

[certainot]

27. then again, i heard a caller to RW show, who might have been sitting in the heritage fdtn basement,

tell the RW blowhard (and the thousands listening) that OWS is a white house inspired thing used to deflect the media from solyndra and 'fast and furious' (the guns/ATF/ holder story). that is exactly what limbaugh has been saying to tens of millions. over and over.

so it may take a while and as long as it goes it helps enable republican politicians ignore more serious problems and obstruct their solutions- or at least get compromise.

[No Elephants]

31. What have you done about talk radio, besides use it in posts that

absolve people in power of all responsiblity?

I don't happen to think talk radio is the be all and end all of our current problems, as you seem to. It does seem to be your bete noir, though. So, what have you done about it, besides post on it?

[No Elephants]

30. ACORN was bankrupted by an unconstitutional law that Democrats passed and Obama signed.

I addressed Sherrod in my prior post.

Holder does Obama's bidding.

No one is forcing anyone in the Obama administration to knee jerk any time Limbaugh farts. I don't think that is what is happening, but according to you it is.

According to you, Obama has no choice whatever but to do talk radio's bidding ASA{. So, we're back to my Reply #20.

Good luck following your reasoning to its logical conclusion.

According to you, there is apparently no point at all in electing Democrats as long as talk radio exists, because Democrats are totally helpless in the face of talk radio.

[No Elephants]

19. No, they fired someone who came on after the Solyndra deal had been finalized.