More Taxpayer Funded 'Green Energy' Firms File For Bankruptcy

Say what you will about the Obama Administration, at least they're the model of consistency when they try and pick renewable energy winners while playing venture capitalist with other people's money.

No less than two Massachusetts-based 'green energy' companies- one of them touted by President Obama as a Stimulus success story- have filed for bankruptcy last week.

Waltham, MA-based battery manufacturer A123 Systems [NASDAQ- AONE] had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on October 16.



The company had gone through nearly $260 million in Federal grants and loans since 2010 as well as another $5 million from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The struggling battery manufacturer was supposedly close to a deal worth more than $400 million with China's Wanxian Group [SSE- 600371] but that deal fell through.

Instead, Wisconsin-based Johnson Controls [NYSE- JCI] is bidding to purchase A123's assets including two battery plants in Michigan.

The following day, Boston-based solar inverter company SatCon had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. SatCon [NASDAQ- SATC], which primarily markets towards industrial and utility grade photvalic markets, had been awarded two seperate stimulus grants of $3 million each- far less than A123 or Solyndra- but has reportedly used an estimated total of $228,000 from those contracts.

On the other end of the country, officials in the Treasury Department are investigating the financial practices of a solar company run by a bundler for Obama's Presidential campaign.

Elon Musk was hoping to put his San Mateo, CA-based Solar City up for an initial public offering (IPO),but some of the disclosures required by the SEC has garnered the attention of the IRS and Treasury in two seperate probes.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing SolarCity, the SEC filings reveal, and at the same time the Treasury Department's inspector general is investigating the company. The question at hand: Did President Obama's Treasury Department inappropriately give stimulus money to Musk's company.

Obama's stimulus transformed a long-standing tax credit for renewable energy investment into a direct grant from Treasury, worth 30 percent of a company's investment in a renewable project. Musk's company has applied for approximately $325 million in these stimulus grants, according to the SEC filing.

Treasury found that SolarCity repeatedly overstated the value of its investments, the SEC filings indicate. In those cases, Treasury awarded smaller grants than SolarCity had tried to claim. Now the department's IG and the IRS are doing a broader audit of the projects for which SolarCity and other large solar companies got stimulus cash. Investigators want to know if the companies regularly overstated the value of their investments and thus got overly generous taxpayer grants.

Musk is also the CEO of electric car manufacturer Tesla motors, which recieved grants and low-interest loans from the US government to the tune of $465 million in 2009. Musk has reportedly donated more than $100,000 to President Obama's campaign and alligned PACs as well.

Meanwhile, workers in a Holland, MI plant that made batteries for the Chevy Volt are now saying that there is literally nothing to do but tidy up around the place or play cards as there are no orders for them to work on. The facility, run by South Korea-based LG Chem, has had very little in the way of work since General Motors scaled back production of the hybrid Chevy volt. The new facility, which broke ground in 2010, recieved $151 million in stiumulus funds and reportedly has yet to make a single battery.

Foreign Workers Hired For Multiple Stimulus-Funded Projects

Gosh- didn't see this coming as far back as 2009 or anything.



Companies that had received funding as part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are said to have hired foreign workers for their projects, according to auditors, labor unions and local press.

In July 2010, LG Chem- a subsidiary of South Korean-based LG Electronics- broke ground on a new plant that manufactured electric car batteries in a ceremony attended by President Obama.

However, Unions in Western Michigan are now saying that the plant is being built with labor from South Korea- although LG Chem initially denied the reports.

LG Chem and another company- Dow Kokam- told CBS news that the foreign workers were 'legal and temporary' and have highly specialized expertise with the equipment being involved. Dow Kokam also used stimulus funds to build a battery plant near Midland, MI. LG Chem received nearly $151 million in stimulus funds to build the Holldand plant while Dow Kokam's Midland plant received a $161 million grant from the Department of Energy as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Local plumbers, pipefitters and millwright unions in Michigan are saying that even if temporary, most of the positions going to the foreign workers could easily be filled by local labor. Currently, Michigan's unemployment rate is around 8.8%- higher than the national average but the lowest the Wolverine State's jobless rate has been in recent years.

Over in Oregon, it was disclosed in late 2011 that at least $7 million went to contractors that ended up exploiting legal loopholes to hire foreign workers for a stimulus-funded forestry project. The contractors said they could not find enough local labor in central Oregon, although one state Senator disputes that.

That came as a surprise to local officials, who said they often got hundreds of responses to every job opening.

"This is a timber area and we hadn't been cutting trees for years," said state Sen. Chris Telfer, R-Bend. "It really ticked off a lot of people here."

In a report on the investigation this week, the Department of Labor's Inspector General found that contractors who brought in foreign workers violated no laws or regulations, but used legal loopholes to hire foreign workers.

While legal, the hiring practices appear to violate the spirit and purpose of the $840 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, better known as the stimulus, which was designed to create jobs that would jumpstart the country out of recession.

The federal investigation looked at 14 contracts to clear federal forests in central Oregon. The contracts were controlled by four Oregon companies: Medford Cutting Edge Forestry, Summitt Forestry, Ponderosa Reforestations, and G.E. Forestry. All hired foreign workers, according to the report, though they didn't all handle hiring in the same way.

The contractors applied for H-2B visas allowing them to hire workers for seasonal jobs, according to the report. In order to get clearance, contractors must prove the jobs can't be filled with local residents and that pay won't dilute local prevailing wages.

But there is a loophole. Under federal rules, notice of the job openings must be made where the job "originates." And while the bulk of the work took place in Oregon, smaller jobs originated in other states.

"Employers were not required to recruit U.S. workers in Oregon, and we were provided no evidence that they did," federal investigators said. "Workers in Oregon were likely unaware that these job opportunities were available."

In fact, although 146 U.S. workers were contacted for possible employment, investigators found that none was hired.

Contractors used another regulation to dampen response from Oregon residents, the report said. The visa regulations allowed the contractors to do all their hiring four months before work started. That made unemployed workers who needed jobs immediately reluctant to commit to temporary jobs four months later.

Despite the barriers, 29 U.S. workers learned of the jobs and asked about employment. The report did not say if they were from Oregon.

The reports from the Oregon newspaper- the Bend Bulletein- did not mention the nationality of the foreign workers. The comapnies also reportedly advertised the job openings with state employment agencies in Idaho, Arizona, California and Wyoming but not with the state of Oregnon's Employment Department.

The findings come about two years after Congress learned that funds for 'green energy' projects from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act were going overseas to purchase solar panels and wind turbine components that were manufactured in China and other Asian countries.

[Hat Tip- Weasel Zippers; The Bend Bulletin]

Not a Good Month For Subsidized Solar Companies

As it turns our, August 2011 has been less than kind to American solar manufacturers.

After taking nearly $60 million in subsidies from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and then bailing for China, Evergreen Solar filed for bankruptcy on August 15.

More recently, a San Francisco-area manufacturer of solar panels sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, shuttering its plant and abruptly laying off 1100 workers. President Obama toured the Fremont, CA facilities of Solyndra Inc back in May 2010 to promote government investments in renewable energy. The company had also received $535 million in loan guarantees from the Department of Energy.

Intel spinoff Spectra Watt filed for bankruptcy protection on August 19 at US Banruptcy court in Poughkeepsie, NY. The company had moved from Hillsboro, OR to Hopewell Jct, NY in 2009. The manufacturer of photovoltaic cells recieved roughly $8 million in subsidies after its startup and another $91 milion from private investors.

Meanwhile, the House Energy Committee has requested that documents and correspondence between the White House, Solyndra and the company's investors be turned over.

"How did this company, without maybe the best economic plan, all of a sudden get to the head of the line?" Representative Fred Upton (R MI-6) told ABC News in an interview this week. "We want to know who made this decision ... and we're not going to stop until we get those answers."

White House officials have said in interviews that they did not intervene in the Solyndra deal or others benefiting companies backed by supporters of the president. Yet the administration, from Obama to the Department of Energy, has very publicly praised the loan guarantee.

In 2009, the Obama administration hailed the Solyndra loan as the first in a series of federal infusions for "green energy" firms that held the potential to clean up the environment and create jobs. But earlier this week, Solyndra abruptly closed its doors, announced it would file for bankruptcy and laid off more than 1,100 workers.

While Energy Department officials steadfastly vouched for Solyndra -- even after an earlier round of layoffs raised eyebrows -- other federal agencies and industry analysts for months questioned the viability of the company.

A May 2011 Center for Public Integrity investigative report raised questions on whether or not the Obama Administration bypassed procedural steps meant to protect taxpayers while approving the $535 million loan guarantee.

Sour Grapes- Napa Valley Wine Train No-Bid Stimulus Project Facing Massive Cost Overruns

Photo- Steven M Welch

Readers of this blog in its earlier days might remember the sweetheart no-bid contract Alaska Native Corporation Suulutaaq was awarded with stimulus money to do some work on a new bridge for the Napa Valley Wine Train- a project that Suulutaaq turned right around and subcontracted to Kiewit and Sons while pocketing nearly $20 million for doing next to nothing in the process.

Well, in perhaps the most surprising news since the tide coming in or sun rising in the east, the Napa Valley project that Suulutaaq subcontracted is looking at cost overruns of at least $6.2 million.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may need as much as $6.2 million to keep work on the relocation of railroad facilities and Napa Creek flood defenses on track, Julie Lucido, local project manager, told the Napa Flood Control District's board of directors Tuesday.

"If we don't get those dollars for those two projects, we could be stopped," Lucido said.

Any disruption would undoubtedly end up increasing construction costs when work was resumed, Lucido said. Taxpayers would end up paying more, she said.

Dave Cook, one of the Army Corps' Napa managers, said he expects to know within 30 days if the companies working under federal contracts in Napa can keep working.

The corps is dealing with two issues, Cook said. The company with the $65 million railroad contract racked up substantial unanticipated costs last fall, he said. Also, the corps' overall budget has been reduced by Congress, he said.

In March alone, Cook said he approved more than $3 million in additional costs for Suulutaaq Inc., the general contractor for the new railroad bridges and related street work.

Suulutaaq and its partner, Kiewit Corp, ran into major complications last year in building a new rail bridge over the Napa River. It took working seven days a week to finish the bridge's foundation prior to the winter flood season, which allowed construction to occur throughout the winter, Cook said.

Although these construction problems ran up the price, the alternative was to delay the rail project a year, Cook said. "It saved the federal government millions and millions by having those guys work seven days," he said.

The Army Corps negotiated with Suulutaaq over the bills for unanticipated work, then reached a settlement, Cook said.

To keep work going, the corps shifted money from its construction management account, leaving a construction management deficit that must be filled if work is to continue this summer, Lucido said.

With money tight for many flood projects across the U.S., Cook said the corps was developing contingency plans on how to proceed. Some projects will need to be scaled back, he said.

Don Ridenhour, the county's public works director, suggested that Napa may ultimately end up paid for. "We seem to be a very popular project in the eye of the corps," he said.

Lucido agreed, noting that Napa has been the corps' "poster child" for flood control. The Napa project was one of the first federal efforts that provided major environmental benefits as well as flood control, she said.

Until this latest bad news, local officials thought that both the rail relocation and a two-year, $15 million contract with Proven Management for Napa Creek were fully funded.

The Napa Creek project and most of the rail contract are paid for by a $99.5 million grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the federal government's effort to jump-start the economy and end the recession.

Because Proven's winning bid was $14 million less than estimates, the corps ended up returning $14 million to Washington last September.

Keeping the $14 million in a contingency fund would have defeated the goal of the economic stimulus grant to "put people to work" right away, Cook said.

Even if this fiscal year's budget shortfall can be solved, the Napa flood project still faces an uncertain future in the new federal fiscal year that starts in October, Lucido said.

Until now, the Napa project was mostly paid for by federal "earmarks," or specific appropriations that elected officials such as Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, put into the federal budget, she said.

But Congress and President Obama have since banned earmarks, meaning there will have to be "some other process" for keeping the Napa project going, [emphasis mine- NANESB!] Lucido told the flood board.

This is where Napa's "poster child" reputation may save the day, she said.

"Some other process"? I'm dying to know what that will be. Since California is serving as an object lesson in out-of-control government spending by being about $43 billion in the hole, I doubt the state will be riding to the rescue. The municipalities in the Golden State are hardly better off, either.

So that would most likely mean Lucido and Congressman Thompson would somehow find another way to continue federal funding in some way, shape or form. Which means we will ALL get to foot the bill for this ill-concieved, wasteful fiasco in some way shape or form.

Los Angeles City Comptroller: $111 Million in Stimulus Money Created Less Than 55 Jobs.

Using the Obama Administration's newest metric, there's still no word on how many 'lives touched' by the stimulus money in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles City Controller said on Thursday the city's use of its share of the $800 billion federal stimulus fund has been disappointing.

The city received $111 million in stimulus under American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) approved by the Congress more than year ago.

"I'm disappointed that we've only created or retained 55 jobs after receiving $111 million," says Wendy Greuel, the city's controller, while releasing an audit report.

"With our local unemployment rate over 12% we need to do a better job cutting red tape and putting Angelenos back to work,” she added.

According to the report, the Los Angeles Department of Public Works generated only 45.46 jobs (the fraction of a job created or retained correlates to the number of actual hours of work) after receiving $70.65 million, while the target was 238 jobs.

Similarly, the city’s department of transportation, armed with a $40.8 million fund, created only 9 jobs in place of an expected 26 jobs.

The audit says the numbers were disappointing due to bureaucratic red tape, absence of competitive bidding for projects in private sectors, inappropriate tracking of stimulus money and a laxity in bringing out timely job reports.

But gosh! Haven't they heard? Since the first stimulus and 'Recovery Summer' was so successful, the Obama Administration wants another $50 billion in infrastructure spending! Even though signifcant infrastructure spending and improvement was promised with the first $787 billion in stimulus funding.

Hat-tip: 3wood over at Correspondence Committee.

Obama Offers Up Telling 17-Minute Non-Answer to Question At Town Hall

While either touting his latest economy-killing policy proposal or still doing his 0bamacare victory lap, President Obama hosted a town-hall meeting while visiting the North Carolina facilities of battery-manufacturer Celgard last week and gave an earful.

“We are overtaxed as it is,” Doris said bluntly.

Obama started out feisty. “Well, let’s talk about that, because this is an area where there’s been just a whole lot of misinformation [emphasis mine- NANESB!], and I’m going to have to work hard over the next several months to clean up a lot of the misapprehensions that people have,” the president said.

OK, I'm sure there's all sorts of video and audio of Obama rambling on and on, but come on now. Seventeen minutes of Obama speaking is seventeen precious minutes of my life that I'm never getting back.

But the most telling statement was the preamble to his prolonged ramble, mercifully towards the beginning. He is basically telling this Doris, who like 99% of everybody else in this country is concerned about the economy, her job security and personal finances, that the very idea that she and others are overtaxed is 'just a whole lot of misinformation'.

This seems to be the proverbial pachyderm in the room that alot of pundits have overlooked- the President of the United States basically just told Americans concerned about the economy and more taxes 'tough shit'. Their fears are unfounded, if not outright fabrications is how he started out his prolonged non-answer.....Lord knows what else he went off about for the remaining 16 minutes and thirty seconds.

Additionally, the visit to Celgard might've been an attempt to either try and sugarcoat the mismanaged and ill-gotten Stimulus money- Celgard was a recipient of $49 Million in Stimulus funds- or resume his push for the ruinous Cap & Trade legislation that's already passed the House last year. The President described Celgard as an example of providing 'green jobs' to the local economy.

American Recovery & Reinvestemnt Act Funds Creating Jobs and Stimulating Economy.....In China

Citing a report from the Investigative Reporting Workshop, a group of Democrat lawmakers called upon the Obama Administration to suspend funding of an ARRA project directed at construction for renewable energy projects.

more than 80 percent of the first $1 billion in grants to wind energy companies went to foreign firms. Since then, the administration has stopped making announcements of new grants to wind, solar and geothermal companies, but has handed out another $1 billion, bringing the total given out to $2.1 billion and the total that went to companies based overseas to more than 79 percent.

In fact, the largest grant made under the program so far, a $178 million payment on Dec. 29, went to Babcock & Brown, a bankrupt Australian company that built a Texas wind farm using turbines made by a Japanese company

One of the recipients of the stimulus funds is a joint venture between private firm US Renewable Energy Group, Cielo Wind Power of Austin, TX and China's Shen Yang Power Group to build a $1.5 billion wind turbine project in Texas. Other 'green energy' companies have outsourced the manufacturing of wind turbines and solar panels to China. The Investigative Reporting Workshop estimates that as much as 79% of the $2 billion in stimulus funds already distributed slated for renewable energy projects have gone to foreign-based companies.

Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and three other lawmakers wrote Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to request a moratorium remain in place until legislation could be drafted requiring the funds only go to projects that create and preserve American jobs. Energy Department Secretary Steven Chu said that the funds could be allocated and made "available to all qualifying entities"such as the Shen Yang Power Group's wind farm

“In all due respect I remind the secretary (of Energy) there is a four-letter word associated with the stimulus -- J-O-B-S,” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., told ABC News who interviewed him for a report done in coordination with the Workshop’s ongoing investigation. “Very few jobs here, lots of jobs in China. That is not what I intended or any other legislator who voted for the stimulus intended.”

Truth be told, I'd be alot more impressed with Schumer and other Dem's indignation if they weren't just figuring this out a year and $2 billion later. Or better yet, if they never voted for the Stimulus/American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in the first place.

Grim Milestone Watch- Money Thrown Down a Black Hole....or, The Stimulus One Year Later

I guess you could've considered me a skeptic from the beginning. As it turns out, I'm hardly in the minority these days.

I remember sometime about a year ago catching a special presentation on the History Channel called The Crumbling of America. Like many a 'documentary' that network has been known to air lately, it came off as a tad alarmist- although it did raise several valid concerns over the age and condition of America's infrastructure. I only caught the first part of this special, but the release of this seemed to coincide with the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The conspiracy theorist in me might've thought that this was aired for the purpose of scaring up support for the $787 Billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

One of the highlighted structures was the Tappan Zee Bridge, which is the NY State Thruway bridge over the Hudson River north of New York City. It was mentioned how the bridge is being undermined by improperly treated wood pilings that were installed when it was being built in the 1950s. The special went on to suggest that it might actually be cheaper to build a new Tappan Zee bridge from scratch instead of extensively rebuilding the obsolete one.

Well...between the History Channel special, the recovery.gov website and stimuluswatch.org, the only entry I could find pertaining to the Tappan Zee Bridge was a $5,547,824 bid to purchase 7 low-emission passenger buses, two of which will be used for the Tappan Zee Express service. No mention of any work or projects concerning the bridge itself.

Now, while I was aware that much of America's infrastructure needed upgrading and repair, I had my doubts about how this administration planned on going about it. Perhaps most telling was President Obama's bold proclamation that a brand-new Maglev railway would be constructed between Southern California and Las Vegas. If I remember correctly, the Union Pacific Railroad has been looking to expand capacity on its LA-Salt Lake City line (which runs through Las Vegas) for some 10-15 years. Whenever the UP attempts to lengthen a siding or install double-track along their Mojave Desert line, an environmental group will file some sort of injunction demanding the railway ceases work because the tracks run through some endangered species habitat. Then the railroad is ordered to conduct a lengthy environmental impact study, paid for out of their own pockets. And whatever project UP intended to start falls by the wayside thanks to red tape, litigation and environmental obstructionism.

Now, keep in mind that the UPRR has been running through the Mojave desert for over a century. Now, imagine the hurdles that could be thrown out in front of a maglev railway being built through the same desert from scratch. The only people who would benefit would be the lawyers working on behalf of environmental groups seeking to halt construction.

And that is actually one of the less egregious examples. The San Francisco Chronicle and bloggers Zombie, New Class Traitor and myself documented the Federal government awarding Alaska Native Corporation Suulutaaq a $54 million dollar no-bid contract for a rail relocation project for the Napa Valley Wine Train that they promptly subcontracted for $33 million. There are also some pretty stark examples of wasteful ARRA spending here and here.

President Obama seems to have been aware of the growing discontent regarding the stimulus prior to the State of the Union address. With no significant private-sector job creation to speak of, the used-car-salesman in chief shifted the goalposts in the middle of the game and instead touted the effectiveness of the ARRA in saving the jobs of policemen and teachers. To be fair, that would probably be better tack for Obama than togo out there and tout the number of 'green collar' jobs that had been created under his watch.

The cynic in me couldn't help but notice that most public-sector unions, especially teachers unions, had heavily invested in President Obama's campaign so I suppose it's only fair for them that they got some bang for their buck. I guess the rest of us will have to wait to get 'stimulated' by Cap & Trade or Card Check.

This time last year, we were starting to hear what poor shape our infrastructure was in. 365 Days and a few hundred billion dollars later, the infrastructure is no better off...nor is the American taxpayer.

Wine Country Boondoggle- Contractor For Napa Valley Railroad Stimulus Project Pockets $20 Million For Doing Nothing

(Amy Miller)

According to California Watch and the San Francisco Chronicle, a project involving a new bridge and track realignment for Northern California's Napa Valley Wine Train as part of the larger Napa River flood-control project was awarded $54 Million in stimulus funds. The Napa Valley Railroad is a privately-run tourist railroad that takes tourists and sightseers between Napa and St. Helena, CA and serves meals and wine in restored coaches. The Wine Train began operations when the Southern Pacific announced it was abandoning it's Vallejo to Calistoga, CA branch in 1985. Former Rice-A-Roni and Ghiradelli Chocolate President Vincent De Dominico and local entrepreneurs would purchase the right-of-way from Southern Pacific, four 1950s vintage former VIA Rail Canada/Canadian National Montreal Locomotive Works FPA4 diesels and some former Rio Grande passenger cars. The wine train began operations in 1987, and aside from ballast for the railroad's maintenance-of-way, very little freight is hauled over the line.

The current project and the contractor that was awarded the funding in a no-bid contract have come under scrutiny. Anchorage, AK-based Suulutaaq Incorporated was founded by Alaska tribes and enjoys special access to Federal Contracts including the Napa River Flood Control project.

However, Suulutaaq turned around and subcontracted the project to Peter Kiewit Sons, Inc.

Federal records show that Suulutaaq is paying Kiewit $28.1 million - 53 percent of the total stimulus contract. Suulutaaq is keeping about $20.4 million, or 38 percent of the total. The rest, about $4.7 million, goes to other subcontractors, all from the lower 48 states.

So that means Suulutaaq basically pockets $20 million of taxpayer funds by subcontracting a public works project that was closed to bidding. In other words, the company made $20 million without even lifting a finger.

Walnut Creek, CA contractor Robert G. Brosamer had planned to put in a bid on the proposed project as early as 2008, but was told that no bids were being sought at the time as it was looking like the project was a "done deal with an ANC [Alaska Native Corporation]".

Brosamer, the Walnut Creek contractor, said the public was paying a premium for the Wine Train project, saying, "It would have been a hell of a lot cheaper if they had put it out to bid."
"The reality is, Suulutaaq isn't doing much," Brosamer said.

However, as the article points out, very few of the jobs awarded to ANCs actually go to Alaska Natives:

Critics have complained that the no-bid contracts provide relatively few jobs and little investment income to the tribes while costing taxpayers a fortune.

Alaska Native corporations don't have to prove that they're socially or economically disadvantaged," Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said at a 2009 hearing. "They don't have to be small businesses. And they can receive no-bid contracts worth billions of dollars."The companies employ few Alaska Natives and "rely heavily on non-native managers," she said.

The current CEO of Suulutaaq is Samuel Boyle, who burned through an estimated $14 million worth of venture capital as CEO of sailnet- an online retailer of sailing and boating equipment that went bankrupt in 2005.

"My comment to anybody connected to this thing - if Sam Boyle is involved, watch out," said Arizona venture capitalist Kent Mueller, who said he lost more than $1 million in Sailnet.

[Hat tip: Zombie]

Stimulus- New Jersey Style.

(Evans/AP)

Meet Stepfanie Velez-Gentry of Bellmawr, NJ. She's the founder of Nookie Parties- which she describes as being like a Tupperware party, only with lingerie and adult toys.

She's also running for State Assembly as a Republican (I bet Nookie Parties isn't even a union workplace- the horror!). We don't really learn too much about where Mrs. Velez-Gentry stands on various issues, let alone who she's running against- a Libertarian pole dancer? a Democrat nude housemaid?- but looks like she has some experience as the owner of a small business if nothing else.

Meanwhile, blogger Ashok has a roundup on the various New Jersey newspapers who think that Jim Corzine must absolutely, positively not be re-elected.

High Jobless Rates Could be 'New Normal'

WASHINGTON — Even with an economic revival, many U.S. jobs lost during the recession may be gone forever and a weak employment market could linger for years. That could add up to a "new normal" of higher joblessness and lower standards of living for many Americans, some economists are suggesting.

Wow. Freakin' brilliant strategy! Call high unemployment and a decline in the standard of living the 'new normal' and Viola! Instant economic recovery! All is right with the world. I'm so glad the White House and congress 'solved' this problem with the Stimulus bill earlier this year- I mean, that was $787 Billion well spent. Who knows....? Without it, the national unempoyment rate might actually soar past 8%! I can rest easy now.