What about Beacon Power ?

Showing a growing frustration with the the Obama administration, congressional Republicans on Thursday authorized their second subpoena this week, demanding White House documents related to failed solar technology company Solyndra.

By a 14-9 party-line vote the Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigative subcommittee authorized issuing a subpoena for any White House documents related to Solyndra, which received renewable energy loan guarantees under President Obama’s stimulus program. The request for documents could include details of the president’s own travel and communications.

Democrats said it was “unprecedented” to subpoena documents from the president’s executive office like this, but Republicans said they’ve run out of patience with White House “stalling.”

“We simply cannot allow the executive branch at its highest levels to pick and choose what they will produce, or whether they will produce anything at all,” said Rep. Cliff Stearns, the Florida Republican who runs the investigative panel.

Thursday’s subpoena came just a day after the Judiciary Committee’s immigration subcommittee voted along party lines to authorize a subpoena for Homeland Security records related to illegal immigrants the department has declined to pursue deportation cases against.

**FILE** An auction sign is shown outside the Fremont, Calif., headquarters for bankrupt solar company Solyndra headquarters on Oct. 31, 2011, before the auction on the following day. Solyndra received a $500 million loan guarantee from the government before filing for bankruptcy in September. (Associated Press)

Together they mark an escalation as Republicans have become increasingly aggressive in pushing back against what they see as administration stonewalling of oversight by the new GOPmajority in the House.

In each case, the vote only authorizes a subpoena. It’s up to the chairmen of the full committees to actually issue them.

Democrats said both votes were premature. They pointed to ongoing discussions between Homeland Security and the Judiciary Committee on the one hand, and between theWhite House and the Energy and Commerce Committee on the other, as evidence the administration is acting in good faith.

“The White House repeatedly said they had turned over documents and they were willing to turn over more documents,” said Rep. Diana DeGette, the ranking Democrat on the investigations panel.

She also said the administration has already turned over tens of thousands of documents.

Each side now argues the other is acting in bad faith.

Republicans point to a lengthy effort to get documents, and said it is only when the committee begins to threaten subpoenas that things shake loose.

Rep. Fred Upton, Michigan Republican and chairman of the full committee, said several new boxes of documents were released to the press Wednesday night even before they were turned over to thecommittee. Those documents reportedly show the Obama administration mulled bailing Solyndra out just days before the solar panel manufacturer collapsed.

Democrats said they support legitimate requests for information and back the House’s right to investigate the administration. But they said the request for all potential Solyndra communications was a broad fishing expedition, and accused the GOP of short-circuiting usual negotiations.

“Apparently what the committee really wants is a confrontation with the president,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman, the top Democrat on the full Energy and Commerce Committee.

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It is still early, but i would not be surprised that a case can not be pinned on J.C.

Speculation is mounting that the referendum may not go through as the Greek ruling party is split over it. This had caused Europe to pare losses and experience retard moves to the upside.

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I think I busted a rib from laughing…

A scathing new expose on the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change — which sets the world’s agenda when it comes to the current state of the climate — claims that its reports have often been written by graduate students with little or no experience in their field of study and whose efforts normally might be barely enough to satisfy grad school requirements.

Grad students often co-author scientific papers to help with the laborious task of writing. Such papers are rarely the cornerstone for trillions of dollars worth of government climate funding, however — nor do they win Nobel Peace prizes.

“We’ve been told for the past two decades that ‘the Climate Bible’ was written by the world’s foremost experts,” Canadian journalist Donna Laframboise told FoxNews.com. “But the fact is, you are just not qualified without a doctorate. In academia you aren’t even on the radar at that point.”

The IPCC insists that the lead authors of individual sections of its climate report are indeed the pre-eminent experts in their field.

“These authors are nominated by governments and selected based on expertise,” a spokesman told FoxNews.com. “Author teams on IPCC chapters are a mix of individuals who have excelled in their fields of specialism.”

Whispers from the G20 meeting is that Greece will be allowed to go bankrupt if there is a no vote from referendum.

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We already have something like 20k+ active nuclear devices. Does it make sense to spend more ?

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Just make it quick guy

Colorado voters have rejected an attempt to raise state income and sales taxes to fund education, The Denver Post has declared.

With 61 percent of precincts reporting, Proposition 103 was going down in flames across the state, with 35 percent in favor to 65 percent against.

That was also true in Denver. With 86,978 ballots counted through 8:30 p.m., the measure was failing 45.3 percent to 54.7 percent.

Even in liberal Boulder County — home to the measure’s chief supporter — the measure was struggling. Most recent results showed it was winning there, but just by 1,804 votes.

State Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, the face of the Support Our Schools Bright Colorado campaign in favor of the ballot measure, conceded defeat less than an hour after polls closed.

“It’s clear the people of this state aren’t ready right now to tax themselves to solve this problem,” Heath said to supporters. “But I hope the people of this state will come together and say, ‘We need to make some changes. We need to find a way to finance our education in a different way.’

“If we have accomplished anything, we have set that conversation in motion.”

Heath almost single-handedly led the effort to put the issue on the ballot, drawing only limited support from fellow Democrats and unable to get Gov. John Hickenlooper, the state’s top Democrat and one who pledged to remain neutral, on board.

Heath personally gathered signatures and even donated $10,000 of his own money to the campaign. Supporters raised more than $600,000 in the effort to pass 103, while opponents raised less than a tenth of that.

“The voters of Colorado have spoken loud and clear that this is a measure that would have killed jobs,” said former state Rep. Victor Mitchell, R-Castle Rock, who led the Save Colorado Jobs campaign.

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Perhaps the title does not match the article, but it certainly implies this could be the case.

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Rumors of it being dead in the water are officially crushed.

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On FOX News’ “Special Report” tonight presidential candidate Herman Cain told the panel, after being asked, that he believes the charge of sexual harassment against him has to do with his race.

Charles Krauthammer: “Mr. Cain, when Clarence Thomas was near to achieving position of high authority, he was hit with a sexual harassment charge. You contending for presidency, the office of highest authority, leading in the polls for the Republican nomination, all of the sudden get hit with a sexual harassment charge. Do you think that race, being a strong black conservative, has anything to do with the fact you’ve been so charged? And if so, do you have any evidence to support that?”

Herman Cain: “I believe the answer is yes, but we do not have any evidence to support it. But because I am an unconventional candidate running an unconventional campaign and achieving some unexpected unconventional results in terms of my — the poll. We believe that yes, there are some people who are Democrats, liberals who do not want to see me win the nomination. And there could be some people on the right who don’t want to see me — because I’m not the
‘establishment candidate.’ No evidence.”

Read the rest and watch the video here.

By PAUL SPERRY, FOR INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY Posted 10/31/2011 08:05 AM ET

 View Enlarged Image

President Obama says the Occupy Wall Street protests show a “broad-based frustration” among Americans with the financial sector, which continues to kick against regulatory reforms three years after the financial crisis.

“You’re seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight efforts to crack down on the abusive practices that got us into this in the first place,” he complained earlier this month.

But what if government encouraged, even invented, those “abusive practices”?

Rewind to 1994. That year, the federal government declared war on an enemy — the racist lender — who officials claimed was to blame for differences in homeownership rate, and launched what would prove the costliest social crusade in U.S. history.

At President Clinton’s direction, no fewer than 10 federal agencies issued a chilling ultimatum to banks and mortgage lenders to ease credit for lower-income minorities or face investigations for lending discrimination and suffer the related adverse publicity. They also were threatened with denial of access to the all-important secondary mortgage market and stiff fines, along with other penalties.

Bubble? Regulators Blew It

The threat was codified in a 20-page “Policy Statement on Discrimination in Lending” and entered into the Federal Register on April 15, 1994, by the Interagency Task Force on Fair Lending. Clinton set up the little-known body to coordinate an unprecedented crackdown on alleged bank redlining.

The edict — completely overlooked by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and the mainstream media — was signed by then-HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, Attorney General Janet Reno, Comptroller of the Currency Eugene Ludwig and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, along with the heads of six other financial regulatory agencies.

“The agencies will not tolerate lending discrimination in any form,” the document warned financial institutions.

Ludwig at the time stated the ruling would be used by the agen cies as a fair-lending enforcement “tool,” and would apply to “all lenders” — including banks and thrifts, credit unions, mortgage brokers and finance companies.

The unusual full-court press was predicated on a Boston Fed study showing mortgage lenders rejecting blacks and Hispanics in greater proportion than whites. The author of the 1992 study, hired by the Clinton White House, claimed it was racial “discrimination.” But it was simply good underwriting.

It took private analysts, as well as at least one FDIC economist, little time to determine the Boston Fed study was terminally flawed. In addition to finding embarrassing mistakes in the data, they concluded that more relevant measures of a borrower’s credit history — such as past delinquencies and whether the borrower met lenders credit standards — explained the gap in lending between whites and blacks, who on average had poorer credit and higher defaults.

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Give us your stock at lower prices b4 we inflate the markets….

More on the Greek referendum 

There used to be a saying “don’t do the crime if you can’t handle the time.”

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For better or worse ?

It is one thing to say this is what needs to be done, but another to get everyone to agree and act.

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