TARP Special Inspector General Neal M. Barofsky’s Report Slams the Obama Administration Over Auto Bailout Bungling!

Earlier this week, Neil Barofsky (pictured above), Troubled Asset Relief Program Special Inspector General, issued a scathing report on the Obama administration’s handling of the Auto bailouts last year!

One portion of that report read, "At a time when the country was experiencing the worst economic downturn in generations and the government was asking its taxpayers to support a $787 billion stimulus package designed primarily to preserve jobs, Treasury made a series of decisions that may have substantially contributed to the accelerated shuttering of thousands of small businesses and thereby potentially adding tens of thousands of workers to the already lengthy unemployment rolls - all based on a theory and without sufficient consideration of the decisions' broader economic impact."

Perhaps even more damning is the assertion that race and gender played a significant role in which dealerships got shuttered! "[D]ealerships were retained because they were recently appointed, were key wholesale parts dealers, or were minority- or woman-owned dealerships." (emphasis mine)

So, in order to meet the numbers forced on them by the Obama administration, General Motors and Chrysler were forced to shutter other, potentially more viable, dealerships. The livelihood of potentially tens of thousands of families was thus eliminated simply because their dealerships were not minority- or woman-owned.

As has been widely reported, the Inspector General's study skewered the Obama team for coercing (by threatening to withhold the needed TARP funds) the companies into closing 2,000 dealerships, costing an estimated 100,000 people their jobs during a recession.

But it may be EVEN WORSE than the Barofsky Report details, as earlier last week, a top Obama official, manufacturing czar and "Auto Team" leader Ron Bloom admitted that the dealerships could have been kept open, saving those jobs, "but that doing so would have been inconsistent with the President's mandate for 'shared sacrifice.'"

The Barofsky Report amplified that flaw in saying, "No one from Treasury, the manufacturers or from anywhere else indicated that implementing a smaller or more gradual dealership-termination plan would have resulted in the cataclysmic scenario spelled out in Treasury's response; indeed, when asked explicitly whether the Auto Team could have left the dealerships out of the restructurings, Bloom, the current head of the Auto Team, confirmed that the Auto Team 'could have left any one component [of the restructuring plan] alone,' but that doing so would have been inconsistent with the president's mandate for 'shared sacrifice.' "

Barofsky says the administration insisted on the closings even though a GM official told him that GM would usually save 'not one damn cent' by closing any particular dealership....Furthermore, a GM official stated that removing a dealership from the network does not save money for GM - it might even cost GM money - and that savings cannot be attributed or assigned to any one dealership.

No wonder the Obama administration has been so wary of charges of “racism” lately...

Michael Moore Plagiarist...AGAIN?!

Yes, it seems that Lefty-filmmaker, Michael Moore has once again been charged with poaching copyrighted pictures and video from others.

Recently, an entire copyrighted news story and its accompanying video from the Knoxville News Sentinel website, suddenly appeared on Michael Moore’s site without the news site’s permission and minus the Knoxville News Sentinel brand.

The original story, about peace protesters at the Department of Energy's nuclear weapons facilities in Oak Ridge, Tenn., appeared in the Knoxville News Sentinel, on July 5^th, with accompanying text, pictures and video from reporter Frank Munger and photographer Michael Patrick.

A few days later, the entire story was re-posted on Michael Moore’s website. The site linked back to the Knoxville News Sentinel but all of the credits for the photographs had been removed. Moore also reprocessed the video to remove the website's branding.

Jack Lail, the Knoxville News Sentinel's MultiMedia editor said, “I noticed they had not only taken our video but they edited it a little bit and took off our Knox News logo and uploaded it to their YouTube channel and I emailed Michael Moore’s website administrator and told them they were using our photos.” Lail went on, “I also filed a takedown request on YouTube and by the next afternoon YouTube had it removed. I never heard anything from Moore’s site.”

FoxNews reports that, “someone at MichaelMoore.com must have read Lail’s message, since the story and video were eventually removed.”

This is becoming a pattern for Michael Moore, who has said that he doesn’t believe in U.S. copyright laws.

In 2009, prize-winning Iraq war correspondent Michael Yon confronted Moore over the filmmaker’s use of Yon’s photo of a soldier carrying a bleeding child on MichaelMoore.com to illustrate a rant against former President George W. Bush. Yon repeatedly tried to contact the site and received no response.

Back in 2007 Moore wrote in the Monthly Review web magazine, “I don't agree with the copyright laws...You share things with people. I think information and art and ideas should be shared.”

Really?

That seems to be an advocacy for video piracy....of Michael Moore’s own films!

Breitbart's Video Highlights NAACP's Reaction NOT Shirley Sherrod's Words...

OH BOYYYY!.....Yet ANOTHER IRONY ALERT!

Andrew Breitbart said that he'd publish at least one video of the NAACP itself cheering racism....and Breitbart made good on that promise today at Big Government, with a video that showed USDA official Shirley Sherrod explaining to an appreciative NAACP audience in July 2009 how she deliberately withheld information from a white farmer in Georgia trying to save his land and his business. Ms. Sherrod has since resigned her position. Her subsequent turn, where she apparently came to the realization that, "It's not black and white, it's about the haves and have-nots. It's about helping those in need," was met with far LESS enthusiasm.

Some ask, "Why so many people applaud a tale of overt discrimination, while tepidly receiving the final redemptive tale, in public?"

The simple answer is that to SOME people, apparently including a significant number of the political class (career politicians, career academics and dinosaur media types), "SOME bigotries (ie. anti-WHITE, especially anti-WHITE Male and anti-Christian bigotry) are A-OK! There's really no other possible explanation. After all, the mainstream media pretty much ignored the New Black Panther "Voter Intimidation case," and ignored this story UNTIL it could be spinned as the smearing of Shirley Sherrod, instead of the indictment of the NAACP attendees who wildly cheered her story of anti-white bigotry, but only politely applauded the redemptive portion of that tale.

In this video, Ms. Sherrod explains in painstaking detail how she apparently read the farmer in question's mind ("he was trying to show me how superior he was to me"), then goes on to describe how she's torn over how much she should help him, admitting that she doesn’t do everything she can for him, because he's white. Eventually, her basic humanity informs that this white man is poor and needs help. But she decides that he should get help from “one of his own kind”. She refers him to a white lawyer.

The most astounding thing of all, and the point of this video is how well the racist portion of Shirley Sherrod’s tale is received by an NAACP audience. Not exactly the behavior you'd expect from the group that's now holding itself up as the final arbiter of another groups’ racial tolerance.

Tea Party Leader Williams: "It's Impossible to Be a Racist Tea Partier"

IRONY ALERT

Interestingly enough, Mark Williams (the expelled Tea Party leader) here claims "It's impossible to be a racist and Tea Partier," soon after blogged an "Open Letter to President Lincoln," which is about as over-the-top racially insensitive and yes, "racist" an offering as you can find....proving YET AGAIN, that "irony can be pretty damned ironic sometimes."

In his blog post, Mark Williams wrote, "Dear Mr. Lincoln, We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don't cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!" In that same blog post, he added, "Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn't that what we want all Coloreds to strive for?" he continued. "What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare? What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us Coloreds!"

You have to wonder whether Mr. Williams is some sort of "Left-wing plant" looking to undermine whatever gains the grass roots Tea Party has made. After all, the Tea party does have a number of black supporters, and black candidates it supports, in Conservative blacks like Lt. Col Alan West and Star Parker, who are running and leading in the polls....soooo WHY ALIENATE an entire race of people?!

In my view, the Tea Party did the right thing in publicly expelling Mark Williams for that post.

How’d The Weekly World News Miss THIS?!....

Usually this is the kind of story that The Weekly World News specializes in, right along side those pictures of the President of the U.S. posing for a photo shoot with a space alien.

Apparently the WWN has been scooped by The People’s Daily in China, which has reported that the Taliban is “training monkeys to use weapons to attack American troops.”

The Pakistan Defense Forum, which has pictures of gun-toting monkeys, has made the wild claim that a monkey-soldier program was first launched by the CIA in Vietnam, noting ruefully that, “Today, the Taliban forces have given the American troops some of their own medicine.”

And YES, these monkey jihadists are apparently “being rewarded with bananas and peanuts.” WoW! Snipers who literally work for peanuts...or bananas, a jihadist’s dream!

Maybe the jihadists haven’t looked into WHY the CIA’s “monkey soldier program was disbanded.” The CIA found that (1) monkeys tend to be unreliable, easily distracted and irritable when hungry AND (2) they are prone to agitation and disorientation when bananas are thrown into their midst by enemy forces.

In short, they just absolutely SUCKED at guerilla/gorilla warfare!

Par For the Course.....

In the wake of last week’s Lebron James sweepstakes, and the over-the-top response from Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, Jesse Jackson has, as usual, chosen race obsession over reality.

In the lead-up to the start of free agency, Lebron James let it be known that he’d test the waters.

Cleveland, where he’s played for the last seven years since leaving High School and virtually “next door” to his actual hometown of Akron, could offer him the most money by far. New York, Chicago and New Jersey all pitched the added money-making potential of those larger markets.

In the end, in a self-aggrandizing, narcissistic 1-hour TV Show (The Decision), James spurned Cleveland for...Miami, where he joined friends and Beijing teammates Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh.

OK, his exit wasn’t handled gracefully at all and Cleveland fans have every reason to revile him now, although Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert’s post-decision rant was not only over-the-top (in promising a title in Cleveland BEFORE Lebron James wins one), but absurd, as well. Well, not unless you’re prepared to pay that luxury tax, Dan! It looks like it’s going to take a pretty loaded team to even compete with Miami this year and Cleveland doesn’t have all that much to bargain with...sooo, prepare to pay that luxury tax Dan, that is, IF you’re going to make good on your claim.

So what do you think Jesse Jackson takes issue with?

If you guessed race and "white racism"...you nailed it.

In the wake of Dan Gilbert's wounded rant, Jackson noted, “He speaks as an owner of LeBron and not the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers,” the reverend said in a  Rainbow-PUSH  Coalition release. “His feelings of betrayal personify a slave master mentality. He sees LeBron as a runaway slave. This is an owner employee relationship — between business partners — and LeBron honored his contract.”

Yeah baby! Now that’s the ol’Jesse Jackson we all know! A shoot from the lip narcissist who’s been about as spoiled and immune from criticism as Lebron James has been.

Gilbert spoke as the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, which, of course, he is. Of course, in Jackson’s view, that’s the same as seeing LeBron James as a “runaway slave”...oh, except for the part where slaves toil for free and Lebron James plays a game for tens of millions of dollars...PLUS millions more in endorsements.

Soooo, the “new slavery,” is very similar to the “new racism,”...in that both are about as hard to find as a unicorn.

Upping the ante only slightly, Jackson claimed that the owner’s comments put the James in danger.

Truth is, Gilbert’s comments were only over-the-top in claiming that Cleveland (a now decimated franchise) will win a title before Lebron James wins one.

How they’re going to accomplish that, remains a mystery, although, you HAVE TO root for them.

Lebron James didn’t handle the situation at all well and not only came off looking childish and immature, he’s really hurt his legacy going forward. He’s basically put himself in a no-win situation. After all, if he wins a title, or three or five with Miami, the refrain will be, “So what, the Heat’s a veritable All Star team, they SHOULD win!” If they don’t come through, it amounts to a monumental choke.

What’s more, any comparison to Michael Jordan are effectively over. Jordan never had a great Center, in fact, you could argue that all Jordan had around him were talented role players. Yes, even Scottie Pippen had a reputation for being “soft,” before Jordan took him on as a project. Other than Pippen, Jordan was surrounded by the likes of an aging Bill Cartwright early on, and journeymen like Bill Wennington, Horace Grant and role players like Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr and Bill Paxson.

Kobe Bryant took heat for having been on the same team as Shaq! Bryant never planned and plotted to play with Shaq and he stayed with LA through the rebuilding after Shaquille O’Neal was traded to win another title last month.

So, Dan Gilbert, the Cav’s owner is guilty of “acting like a fan,” which he is and Lebron James is guilty of acting like a spoiled, immature 25 year old kid, which he is...and Jesse Jackson is guilty of reacting like an idiot, which he has repeatedly shown himself to be.

Bottom line, Lebron James fulfilled his contract and left his original employer and his hometown to play with two close friends on a virtual All Star team. He committed no crime, other than dashing the hopes and dreams of his hometown fans. In response, Dan Gilbert reacted like any ardent Cleveland fan would.

As for Jesse Jackson, well, his comments show the long standing race obsession and bias that he’s shown in virtually all of his previous dealings.

They don’t call him “a professional race hustler” for nothing.

Goofey Reader Recruitment #1,487,964.....

Dear Nation Friend:

Will we continue to "drill, baby, drill," relying on deepwater rigs that gush crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico...and coal mines that collapse...and nuclear plants that leak deadly radiation?

Yeah, wouldn’t it just be better to revert back to a primitive hunting and gathering society where warring tribes collect scalps and slaves and we burn down entire forests to make more grazing land available for the buffalo herds?

Wait a minute...we’ve already been there and done that...and boy did THAT suck!

The BP oil spill is a daily reminder of the consequences of deregulation that turned our public interest over to the oil industry.

This disaster brings into focus the real price of fossil fuels - not just an ecological nightmare but a moral crisis. For many Nation readers, and for all who care about the environment, this is an opportunity to call for a new and sane energy policy and demand that we move in a fundamentally new direction.

Funny story. The ENERGY industry has long been one of the most highly regulated industries in America. In fact, as noted in the article below, conservative estimates are that we spend well over $10 BILLION/year regulating energy in the U.S., in fact, we're spending over $300 BILLION/year regulating offshore drilling alone!

So much for “deregulation!” Why do folks like Katrina vanden Heuvel (pictured above) have to lie all the time?

Oh wait...I already know, and so do you.

The challenge may seem daunting as newsrooms are shuttered and big media spreads the messages of right-wing opponents obstructing change and progress every step of the way. But The Nation's unwavering commitment to watchdog, tell-it-like-it-is journalism makes an impact. And you can make an impact by subscribing to the reader-supported magazine read by progressives and policy makers--including one at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.

In other words, “Somebody please read our drivel! We can’t believe we’re really out-of-step with mainstream America, in fact, we like to think of ourselves AS “mainstream America.” Never mind the pesky fact that self-identified Conservatives now outnumber self-identiofied liberals by better than 2 to 1, “WE’RE the REAL mainstream!” We are...we are...WE ARE!

In times like these it's clear why independent journalism is so important. Now more than ever, the nation needs The Nation.

Of course, I beg to differ.

Sincerely,

Katrina vanden Heuvel

Editor and Publisher

Uhhhh Katrina? Why are you sending this to a Conservative? Isn’t that a waste of precious resources?