Report: Chevy Volt Battery Supplier Wasted Millions In Stimulus Funds

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Photo Credit: BreitbartAn Inspector General’s report from the Department of Energy (DOE) recently revealed that the LG Chem auto battery plant in Holland, Michigan “inappropriately claimed and was reimbursed for labor costs that did not support the purpose/objective” of a government grant.

According to the IG’s office, this included the costs for staffers to perform “volunteer activities, play games and watch movies during regular work hours.”

The IG points the finger at LG Chem and DOE, saying Department officials did not establish appropriate oversight protections into the $142 million grant that was awarded to LG Chem to build the Holland plant.

Notably, LG Chem Michigan did not fully realize the grant’s target goals, and the Department did not always take sufficient action to ensure adequate oversight of project progress and, in turn, protect the taxpayers $142 million investment in the project. For instance, LG Chem Michigan officials told us that they made a decision to delay production of battery cells at the Michigan facility…

NETL officials commented that it was anticipated at the time the grant was awarded that the transition of production from non-U.S. sources to Michigan would occur; however, language requiring the shift in production had not been incorporated into the grant… until the shift in production takes place or some alternative use for the plant is developed, U.S. taxpayers will receive little direct benefit from a plant for which they provided up to half of the funding.

LG Chem told Michigan local television news that LG Chem workers play games and view films because the plant does not manufacture batteries for consumer use.

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GOP Seeks Planned Parenthood Study With Hope To Strip Funding

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Photo Credit: alamosbasementDozens of Republicans in the House and Senate have asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to examine how Planned Parenthood and other groups that provide abortion services are using taxpayer money.

Those spearheading the effort — Rep. Diane Black (Tenn.), Rep. Pete Olson (Texas) and Sen. David Vitter (La.) — are hoping the study confirms their suspicion that these groups are focusing more on abortion and less on other healthcare services. Black said this finding could be used to justify a reduction in federal funds to abortion providers.

“I firmly believe that organizations which both provide comprehensive health care and respect all life — both the born and unborn — are best equipped to offer the most effective health care services to those in need,” she said in a press release. “My hope is that through greater transparency and accountability we can successfully mobilize the support needed to defund abortion providers — once and for all.”

Black added that Planned Parenthood showed in its latest report that they are providing more abortions and fewer other health services, all while federal funding has increased. “An independent study of the federal funding for abortion providers is necessary to further expose the truth of how these precious taxpayer dollars are truly being used,” Black said.

Federal law prohibits the use of taxpayer funding for abortion. But opponents of Planned Parenthood argue that it is not clear the group is ensuring federal dollars are not used for abortions, as required. Olson said there are signs that Planned Parenthood has “failed to properly follow correct billing practices to prevent federal tax dollars from funding abortion services.”

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Obama Fails To Register ‘Organizingforaction.net’; Site Points To NRA Home Page

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Photo Credit: Breitbart At the beginning of the year, President Barack Obama’s new 501(c)4 political nonprofit, Organizing For Action, was launched with all the usual bells and whistles. But the tech wizards at OFA forgot one important rule in today’s Internet world: Register all the iterations of your website address before someone else does.

Now Obama’s team is filing complaints against the folks smart enough to get the addresses before he did. As Obama’s OFA made its debut, no one in his purportedly Internet-savvy campaign had obtained the corresponding .com, .net, .org or .us sites, nor did OFA register other names that are close to its official one, as is the sensible practice. In the case of the .net address, a fellow named Derek Bovard had already registered the .net address by the time Obama’s team took notice.

Bovard has routed his new site to the homepage of the National Rifle Association. So, whenever anyone goes to www.organizingforaction.net they end up seeing the homepage of the NRA.

Naturally, Obama and his fellow community organizers were furious. So furious, in fact, that they have replied by filing complaints against Bovard–and, apparently, a variety of other people who had registered domain names that OFA now wants.

Obama’s group filed the complaints with the authority that governs website domain addresses, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The complaints were filed under Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) rules. Obama’s case number is 1483257 and was filed on Feb 6. UDRP cases are usually decided within one to two months after first filing.

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Napolitano: Sequester Cuts Will Make US More Vulnerable To Terrorist Attack

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Photo Credit: U.S. Embassy New DelhiAllowing the $85 billion sequester to go forward will make the United States more vulnerable to a terrorist attack, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned Monday.

Napolitano added that the blunt nature of the $85 billion in automatic spending cuts set for March 1 “makes it awfully, awfully tough” to mitigate threats faced by the nation.

“I don’t think we can maintain the same level of security at all places around the country with sequester compared to without sequester,” said Napolitano, whose agency includes the Transportation Security Administration.

The cuts will also hit the Pentagon, the Department of Justice and other national security spending, and the administration has warned the spending reductions will hurt the military’s readiness.

“I think if you look at the combination of the effect on [the Department of Homeland Security], the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense, we are having real impacts on the robustness of our defensive posture,” Napolitano told reporters at the White House on Monday.

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LaPierre: ‘Registry Will Be Used to Confiscate Your Guns’

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National Rifle Association executive vice president andCEO Wayne LaPierre continued speaking out against President Obama’s recent gun control proposals Saturday night, zeroing in on “the realconsequences of background checks,” according to the NRA.

The organization has been targeted by many on the left in the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary last December. While the NRA argues that more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens creates a safer community, many in the administration and on the left disagree, saying it leads to more gun violence and accidental deaths.

Most recently, the NRA has been publicizing a memo it obtained from the Justice Department that says the success of universal background checks would depend in part on “requiring gun registration,” and says gun buybacks would not be effective “unless massive and coupled with a ban.”

LaPierre began his speech with a reminder on why he believes it’s so important to counter strict gun control measures:

“The Second Amendment — it’s not just words on parchment. It’s not a frivolous suggestion from our Founding Fathers to be interpreted on a whim. It lies on the very heart of what our country was founded upon. Our Founding Fathers knew that without the Second Amendment, all of our other freedoms could be in jeopardy. [And] our freedoms are the very essence of America. They are what make America unique.”

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Tea Partyers Fight For Soul of GOP

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Photo Credit: APThough years in the brewing, the internal fight over the direction of the Republican Party has exploded onto front pages and political talk shows this month after strategist Karl Rove announced the formation of a new political action committee designed to promote more electable candidates.

Fed up with what they see as a sellout of their small-government agenda and tired of Election Day disappointments, tea partyers and many conservatives are firing back.

The outcome of the battle will define the party and how it tackles everything from foreign policy to national security and immigration on Capitol Hill, where GOP leaders and tea partyers have been butting heads over taxes and spending.

“This is a fight,” Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, one of the largest branches of the grass-roots movement.

“It is a fight between the people across the country who think they know how to live their lives best and pick their own representatives, against the establishment that thinks it can decide what is best for us through laws, regulations, political consultants and a political class who thinks they should deem who are the most winnable candidates in any given election.”

Mr. Rove, who was former President George W. Bush’s chief strategist through his two presidential wins, is the father of the new Conservative Victory Project, which is designed to provide a counterbalance for influential groups such as the Club for Growth and FreedomWorks that have bucked the GOP establishment on occasion.

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Personal Assets Crash 22% Under Obama, Recession

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Photo Credit: Washington Examiner The struggling economy, President Obama’s inability to fix unemployment and the sour housing market have cut the value of assets held by adult Americans by 22 percent since 2007, according to Pew Research.

In a new analysis of American household fiscal healthiness, Pew also found that those 35 and older have a higher and out-of-whack debt-to-income ratio of 1.22, the highest in three decades.

The crash in household assets and rise in debt comes as Americans are paying more in payroll taxes and at the gas pump, an unhealthy concoction that is sapping support for Obama.

A new Economist/YouGov poll provided to Secrets found Americans split on Obama, with 47 percent approving of his job performance, 46 percent not. And younger voters are especially distressed, with Obama receiving just 43 percent approval from those 18-29 who went overwhelmingly for him in the 2012 election. It’s not better at Rasmussen Reports, which found that just 15 percent of adults view the economy as good to excellent and, in a related poll, that just 40 percent give Obama good marks for job creation.

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Students Made To Wear Burqas In U.S. Schools

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Photo Credit: WNDThere’s a new controversy in Texas involving the online public school curriculum called CSCOPE, which already has been the subject of heated debate and state legislative hearings. There are reports now that students were made to wear Muslim burqas as part of their public school lessons.

CSCOPE has been facing criticism over its alleged Islamic and anti-American bias. It is a “curriculum management system” now used in 80 percent of Texas classrooms – and recently was the subject of a heated inquiry that culminated in hearings conducted by the Texas Senate Education Committee chaired by Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston.

According to a joint press release by Sen. Patrick, State Board of Education Chairperson Barbara Cargill and CSCOPE representatives, CSCOPE ultimately agreed to “significant changes,” but it is unclear when these changes will take place, and whether or not the pledged cooperation is legally binding or simply to mollify critics.

WND contacted Sen. Patrick’s office but has been unable to obtain documentation confirming whether CSCOPE compliance is required or optional.

He did release a statement: “Be assured we are working on this issue as is the SBOE almost every day. The hearing was step one, the letter step two. The only thing that is binding from a legislative standpoint is legislation. We are working on those issues based on what we are discovering now. We are doing our job, one that must be thorough and will take time.”

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FLOTUS Interruptus: Obamas Hijack The Oscars

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Photo Credit: BreitbartConservative movie lovers didn’t suffer any serious Red State taunts during the just-wrapped Academy Awards telecast. Michael Moore wasn’t on hand to bash the GOP, and show host Seth MacFarlane trained his immature wit on George Clooney, breast-baring actresses and the show’s ridiculous length.

And then it came time to announce the Best Picture winner, and Jack Nicholson stepped on stage to do the honors. Only Nicholson, and the show’s organizers, had something else in mind. Enter Michelle Obama.

The First Lady appeared via satellite to not only announce the night’s biggest prize but gave a speech extolling the virtues of the films in play. It was an unprecedented cultural power grab by the Obamas, almost daring conservative viewers to adore her as much as progressives already do.

“These nine movies took us back in time and all around the world. They made us laugh, they made us weep, and they made us grip our armrests just a little tighter. They taught us that love can endure against all odds and transform our lives in the most surprising ways. They reminded us that we can overcome any obstacle if we dig deep enough and fight hard enough and find the courage to believe in ourselves. These lessons apply to all of us no matter who we are, or what we look like, or where we come from, or who we love, but they are especially important for our young people…”

President Barack Obama is no longer running for office, yet the permanent campaign shows little sign of slowing. With this media appearance, the First Couple crossed the line into propaganda, their Cult of Personality act taking an ugly turn.

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Blacks Who Back Gun Control Need to Study History of Slavery and Jim Crow

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At a Friday event billed as a Black History Month press conference, Star Parker said African Americans in Congress who support gun control efforts by President Barack Obama and his administration should consider the history of blacks in this country and people around the globe who were oppressed, including being banned from owning firearms.

CNSNews.com asked Parker, who is the founder and president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE): “There are a lot of African Americans and people of color in Congress who are backing Obama’s plan for gun control. What would you say to them because today [at this event] it was revealed that there is a direct effect on the African American community with this gun control?”

Parker said: “Well, I’d say they need to revisit their history – black history, black slave history, black Jim Crow history — and they should visit the histories of other tyrant nations where we had people like Hitler and Stalin and Mao. Every single time there is someone who wants to take away all other rights of the people, the first right they take away is your right to bear arms.”

“I believe that the the Congressional Black community, or the Congressional Black Caucus is absolutely out of step with black America today on this issue,” Parker said.

Watch video here:

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