More solar companies led by Democratic donors received federal loan guarantees

Via: Daily Caller

By John Rossomando

Bio | Archive | Email John Rossomando

Solar panels in Boulder City, Nevada (Courtesy of First Solar)

RICHMOND, CA - OCTOBER 14: U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (C) toured Sunpower Corporation's research and development facility October 14, 2010 in Richmond, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

(Courtesy of Abengoa Solar)

This artist rendering released by SolarReserve LLC shows what will be the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, a solar generating facility, that is being constructed northwest of Tonopah, Nev., in Nye County. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011, the department has completed a $737 million loan guarantee to Tonopah Solar Energy, for a 110 megawatt solar tower on federal land near Tonopah. SolarReserve LLC, of Santa Monica, Calif., is the parent company for Tonopah Solar Energy. (AP Photo/SolarReserve)

Kevin Smith, CEO of SolarReserve appears on Fox Business Network

Composite image of four solar energy companies that have received federal loan guarantees (Getty Images, Screenshot)

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 the companies they represent, the White House responded to TheDC with a single sentence: “We refer your question to the Democratic National Committee.”


Concerns about the long-term viability of Solyndra, first made public by The Daily Caller back in February, have now expanded to include the financial health of other loan-guarantee recipient firms as well.
These companies have suffered from declining stock prices despite their favored status in the White House.


Yet as the end of the federal government’s fiscal year looms on Friday, a new series of loans could be finalized amounting to more than nine times what taxpayers have already lost on the failed company Solyndra.


“Who was visiting the White House during this period of time?” Texas GOP Rep. Joe Barton asked when contacted by TheDC. Barton is a former chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “Who were they talking to and what were they talking about? Are there more loans at risk of not being paid back? Are these good investments or political favors?”


“The American people just lost a half billion dollars and they deserve answers to these questions before more money is wasted. Until we know exactly what happened, I think we should slow down this loan program and take a closer look at each case.”
“It is becoming more clear with each revelation that warning signs were ignored in the Solyndra case,” Barton continued. “Yet in the next 48 hours — because of a deadline that can still be changed — the Department of Energy is going to hand out another $5 billion in loans.”


Companies like First Solar, SolarReserve, SunPower Corporation and Abengoa SA have already, collectively, received billions in loans through Obama administration stimulus programs to build solar power plants in the southwestern United States.


Yet each, with the exception of the privately held SolarReserve, has seen its stock price hammered at the same time it was lobbying the Obama administration and Congress for billions in loan guarantees.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/29/more-solar-companies-led-by-democratic-donors-received-federal-loan-guarantees/#ixzz1ZOj5XnHo

Is Israel an Apartheid State?

Saudi woman to be lashed for driving car

 Via: The Telegraph

A Saudi woman has been sentenced to to 10 lashes for challenging a ban on women driving.

A Saudi Arabian woman is to be lashed for driving a car days after

women were given the vote in the kingdom (file photo) Photo: ALAMY

Amnesty International reported the sentence just two days after Saudi King Abdullah granted women the right to vote and run in municipal elections.

"Flogging is a cruel punishment in all circumstances but it beggars belief that the authorities in Saudi Arabia have imposed lashes on a woman apparently for merely driving a car", Philip Luther, an Amnesty regional deputy director, said in an emailed statement.

"Allowing women to vote in council elections is all well and good, but if they are still going to face being flogged for trying to exercise their right to freedom of movement, then the king's much trumpeted 'reforms' actually amount to very little," Mr Luther said.

Two other women are also believed to be facing charges related to driving, the Amnesty statement said.

Najla Hariri, one of the women facing charges, told Reuters: "They called me in for questioning on a charge of challenging the monarch on Sunday... I signed a pledge not to drive again, although my driving was a result of necessity not an act of defiance."

Under Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic laws, women require a male guardian's permission to work, travel abroad or undergo certain types of surgery.

There is no law banning women from driving, but there is a law requiring citizens to use locally issued licences while in the country. Such licences are not issued to women, making it effectively illegal for them to drive.

In May, as pro-democracy protests swept the region, some women in Saudi Arabia called for the right to drive. A campaign dubbed Women2Drive issued calls on social media such as Twitter and Facebook to challenge the ban.

Some women posted on Twitter that they drove successfully in the streets of Jeddah, Riyadh and Khobar while others said they were stopped by police who later let them go after signing a pledge not to drive again.

On May 22, Manal Alsharif, who posted a YouTube video of her driving in the streets of Khobar, was arrested. She was later released but her case proved a deterrent for many women.

"I am very upset and disturbed... I believe that this is a message which intends to tell women that they will not get all their demands," said Naila Attar, an activist and one of the women who organised the campaign Baladi (My Country), calling for Saudi women to have the right to vote.

"We are now working on a petition to the king ... asking him to stop the lashing order," she said.

Police Memo on Marijuana Warns Against Some Arrests

Via: NewYorkTimes.com

 

By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS

 

Amid criticism about the way New York City police officers enforce marijuana laws, Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly issued a memo to commanders this week reiterating that officers are not to arrest people who have small amounts of marijuana in their possession unless it is in public view.

 

Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly issued a memo this week.

The New York Legislature decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana in the 1970s, making possession of 25 grams or less a violation of the law that in most cases would not bring a jail sentence. But possessing even small amounts of marijuana in public view remains a misdemeanor.

Just over 50,000 people were arrested on marijuana possession charges last year, a vast majority of them members of minorities and male. Critics say that as part of the Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy, officers routinely tell suspects to empty their pockets and then, if marijuana is displayed, arrest them for having the drugs in public view, thereby pushing thousands of people toward criminality and into criminal justice system.

Critics said the commissioner’s memo, reported on Friday by WNYC, represented a major change of policy. “This will make a tremendous difference because tens of thousands of young people — predominately young people of color — will not be run through the system as criminals,” said Steven Banks, the attorney in chief at the Legal Aid Society, which has handled thousands of the cases.

Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, an advocacy group that has been challenging the Police Department’s marijuana-arrest policies, said the order was directing a significant change in the way the police deal with people they arrest for small amounts of marijuana.

Mr. Nadelmann said that there was evidence of “gross racial disparity” in the enforcement of the marijuana laws and that “this appears to represent a major step forward.”

Although the memo begins, “Questions have been raised about the processing of certain marihuana arrests,” a spokesman for the Police Department said that the order was not in response to any particular incident and that it did not represent any change in policy. It was intended merely to remind officers of existing procedures, he said.

The memo says, “A crime will not be charged to an individual who is requested or compelled to engage in the behavior that results in the public display of marihuana.” The act of displaying it, the order continues, must be “actively undertaken of the subject’s own volition.”

Under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the number of low-level marijuana arrests has increased significantly. Mr. Bloomberg’s office declined to comment on Mr. Kelly’s order, but in the past, mayoral aides have said such arrests helped fight more serious crime, like the violence that tends to trail drugs.

Harry G. Levine, a sociologist at Queens College who has researched the issue, said public defenders and legal aid lawyers who have defended thousands of these cases estimate that between two-thirds and three-fourths of people arrested on charges of possession of small amounts of marijuana displayed it at an officer’s request.

“The police stop them, search them and tell them to empty their pockets,” Professor Levine said. “They don’t know the law doesn’t allow that.”

According to Professor Levine, on average over the past 15 years, 54 percent of people arrested for marijuana possession in New York City were black, 33 percent were Latino and 12 percent were white. National studies tend to show that young whites use marijuana at higher rates than blacks and Latinos.

In a March appearance before the City Council, Mr. Kelly reiterated the Bloomberg administration’s position that arrests for having marijuana in public view have helped keep crime low.

In response to council members who were skeptical of the policy, he said, “If you think the law is not written correctly, then you should petition the State Legislature to change it.”

Hakeem Jeffries, a Democratic assemblyman from Brooklyn, and Mark Grisanti, a Republican senator from Buffalo, have since sponsored a bill that would downgrade open possession of small amounts of marijuana from a misdemeanor to a violation.

City Hall is opposed to changing the law.

In June, Frank Barry, a mayoral aide, said downgrading the offense would “encourage smoking in the streets and in our parks, reversing successful efforts to clean up neighborhoods and eliminate the open-air drug markets like we used to find in Washington Square Park.”

William Glaberson, Rob Harris and Kate Taylor contributed reporting.

Enemy of the State: AYMAN AL-ZAWAHIRI

Murder of U.S. Nationals Outside the United States; Conspiracy to Murder U.S. Nationals Outside the United States; Attack on a Federal Facility Resulting in Death

AYMAN AL-ZAWAHIRI

Multimedia: Images

Aliases:

Abu Muhammad, Abu Fatima, Muhammad Ibrahim, Abu Abdallah, Abu al-Mu'iz, The Doctor, The Teacher, Nur, Ustaz, Abu Mohammed, Abu Mohammed Nur al-Deen, Abdel Muaz, Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri

DESCRIPTION

Date(s) of Birth Used: June 19, 1951 Place of Birth: Egypt Height: Unkown Weight: Unknown Build: Unknown	Hair: Brown/Black Eyes: Dark Complexion: Olive Sex: Male Citizenship: Egyptian Languages: Arabic; French

Scars and Marks:	None known
Remarks:	Al-Zawahiri is a physician and the founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ). This organization opposes the secular Egyptian Government and seeks its overthrow through violent means. In approximately 1998, the EIJ led by Al-Zawahiri merged with Al Qaeda.

CAUTION

Ayman Al-Zawahiri has been indicted for his alleged role in the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya.

REWARD

The Rewards For Justice Program, United States Department of State, is offering a reward of up to $25 million for information leading directly to the apprehension or conviction of Ayman Al-Zawahiri.

SHOULD BE CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS

If you have any information concerning this person, please contact your local FBI office or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate.

Ahmad Khaled: Your Day in “Religion of Peace” Peacefulness, Hate Crimes & US Flag Burning

By Debbie Schlussel

Another day, another Muslim hate crime in America.  This one is in Pineville in the Alexandria, Louisiana area.  But, as reader Duane points out, notice the lack of detail about whom Ahmad committed the hate crime against.  Gee, I wonder why?  Since he burned the flag, we know he hates America, but did he also do or say something anti-Christian or anti-Semitic?  Probably.  Anyway, here are the details of yet another “moderate Muslim” in America.





The Eyes of Mohammed Atta: Guess the Religion 

A Pineville man was arrested Sunday morning and charged with flag desecration and hate crimes.

Ahmad Khaled, 25, of 4133 Waterford Drive in Pineville was arrested by Alexandria Police Department officers who had received a complaint that Khaled was acting suspiciously on Parliament Boulevard.



An investigation connected Khaled to reported cases of criminal mischief, and the FBI assisted in the investigation, authorities reported.

Khaled was charged with five counts each of simple arson, flag desecration and hate crime, and one count each of criminal mischief and attempted simple arson.


Hmmm . . . I wonder what this jerk’s immigration status is. If this guy burned the flag of any Muslim nation in that nation, he’d already be cut up into parts by now.


But in America, it’s a question of: how long ’til the ACLu and HAMAS’ CAIR and their army of lawyers jump in to defend him? Answer: 3-2-1 . . . .