By Johnathan Serrie
Just months after obtaining more than $400,000 in federal stimulus funds, TR Auto Truck Plaza off Interstate 40 sits idle.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) handed out the $424,000 Environmental Protection Agency stimulus grant for electrical hookups so that truckers wouldn’t have to burn diesel fuel while resting. Both the state and EPA were apparently unaware that owner Rick Lewis had a history of legal and financial problems and had filed for bankruptcy.
What was originally lauded as Tennessee’s first electrified truck terminal is now boarded up.
“It is Solyndra in miniature,” said Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., referring to a Silicon Valley solar panel manufacturer that filed for bankruptcy shortly after receiving a $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy. “What I am questioning is the vetting and oversight and the fiduciary responsibility that the federal government — the people who run these programs — have to we, the taxpayer.”
Even before his latest bankruptcy filing, Lewis had a history of financial troubles. He filed for bankruptcy in 2003, a year after a conviction on 31 counts of theft. And Lewis currently faces indictments for allegedly writing worthless checks, according to court records.
I am wondering if Mr. Lewis was a contributor to the Obama campaign. But even if he was not, this is still pretty bad. Another half a million, almost half a million anyway, flushed down the green toilet.
It will never change until there is real “Change” will it?
It’s peanuts. You think small. Money controls the world. Money controls the mouthpieces at FOX news on the right, and even news on the left. Money controls the political process; Katy Bachman at Brandweek estimates “political media spending will hit $5.6 billion during the 2012 election.†Money even warps academia; not a lot of poor people attend Harvard and Yale. Most college presidents earn twenty times what a schoolteacher earns, so they too belong to the Fourth Reich of the Rich, not the middle class. “Ivy-League Economics Professors are often on the payroll of Wall Street and other corporations, to the tune of millions, as board members or consultants,†stated Charles Ferguson, who gives examples in his documentary Inside Job of how these same academics gave false reports of the stability of their benefactors’ industries. “Many prominent academics quietly make fortunes while helping the financial industry shape public debate and government policy,†he adds. Academia for hire… for bribe.
And 98% of our media in all its forms are controlled by the elite estate. Madison Avenue advertising, most magazine and publishing businesses, television and movies and music, are all run by millionaires.
There is only one thing that can stop this insidious predation: truth. Principles of fairness, honesty, and democracy, the ideas expressed in the American Declaration of Independence―the right of all people to an equal pursuit of life, liberty and happiness―can prevail. Once we understand that capitalism and freedom can both exist even while we have limits placed on exorbitant wealth accumulation, then policies can be shaped which are reasonable and fair. But we, the majority, the hard-working and moral citizens of this planet, must speak up. A single “master conspiracy theory†simply doesn’t match the facts of history or of human psychology. The rich and powerful are too egoistic and competitive to consistently bow to one leader or world-view. There is no chorus line of ideologues. One thing binds all plutocrats across all history: the code word G-R-E-E-D.
This is what Occupy Wall Street is about.
very nice bit of cut and paste…. Not an original thought posted buy you…
He the author has one thing wrong. The decleration is that, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” not that the “right of all people to an equal pursuit of life, liberty and happiness”…. an interesting yet inaccurate twist of the Decleration.
Who is Robin G. Hood? your insane sister? ha Firetherich.org.. what a joke. They even have the Gaul to ask for donations….
In other words you do not like “Electrified truck terminals” that fail? Cut to the chase and address the issue at hand instead of pontificating. You are extremely boring. Sound like a freshman in college that is a soc. major?
you are very dull Joe
Joe! Don’t talk to Jerk that way! Not very nice…. 🙁
It was directed at you Mr. Hood, not for Mr. Knot. Apparently you like to constantly stir the pot with no spoon I assume?
I knew that of course. And ouch, what an insult. You sure know how to dish it out. So you like greed, huh? That’s so 80’s dude.
I hate greed but I love a well earned profit. There is a difference for which you obviously would never fathom.
Uh gosh.. thanks for setting me straight… I had no idea there was a difference… duh… drool, dribble dribble…
Apparently you don’t.
Duh right you are Joe… you so smart… with your long sentences, big words, and wit.
Now if my last post was a long sentence with big words as you state, “Houston” American’s youth has a major problem in english, verbiage et al! If you are not kidding, you as others scare me intellectually going forward for our childrens future.
What… Joe… me, kid? Gotta get up pretty early in the morning….!!??
Meanwhile you have a loyal family man, Mr. Obama…who has capped Bin Ladin, pushed Kadafi out, and officially ended Bush’s Iraq catastrophe….all the while trying to rescue the economy from that multiple train wreck previous Administration, against an anti-Obama/anti-America Republican Congress.
So he killed two people under his watch following Bush’s foreign policy? And your point? Man, that happens in his hometown, Chicago, ever 12 hours. And your point is? How’s our economy? You claim you work two, three jobs? (You are lucky you have at least one!!!) Give us a friggin break dunderhead!
Uhh beside all your utter and complete nonsense… Have you checked the DOW lately? (I know that answer to that, so don’t bother…)
The Dow? thought that you never invested? Or were all your posts wrong and a lie? As to the Dow? I will take my chances that someone, absent Obama will get us back on track and then the Dow should gain traction. Only time will tell won’t it. Finally, “progressives” like you forget that all the police, firemen, school teachers, unions have their investments in the “Dow”! As stated, you are a dunderhead and have no knowledge of economics or what markets react to on any given day, pure and simple. You are a neophyte.
Uhh… no Joe… that is correct, I don’t invest anymore. How sweet of you to remember. That fact has NOTHING to do with my post or my point…. Again, I wish I could draw you some pictures since it might help you, but I cannot. I can only surmise that you HAVE NOT checked on the Dow lately otherwise… well, nevermind- your post is par for your course. That’d be a mini golf course, of course.
Ok, I guess that you are in the 1% you do not have to invest like the “average” person. Above the rest are you? Must be a member of the SEIU?
Is that an actual response in this dimension? Cuz I’m not seein’ it.
BTW, red’s a good color for you.
neck
I understand from previous posts that you hate blacks on this site.
U R demented.
We all read your posts don’t we.
seriously… guy…. get some help then again, nevermind… you obviously very much like being the way you are
Again, are you black like I or should I ask are you a racist?
I’m a racist for suggesting you need help? That is actually a racist statment in and of itself. But this entire conversation is irrational beyond comprehension.
Another post you allude to being Indian. Perhaps you are a black Indian? And utilize either persona to suit your needs? I’m not exactly criticising that, just curious…
Yes you are simply by asking the question. A “Progressive” would not ask, they would simply accept, now there is the difference.