The Spectacle Blog
Conflict of Interest for Obama’s Weatherization Czar
If you did not catch John Stossel’s program tonight on “Crony Capitalism,” he did a segment that theFreedom Foundation of Minnesota helped him with (a lot!) about a small window company called Serious Materials.
If you did not catch John Stossel’s program tonight on “Crony Capitalism,” he did a segment that the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota helped him with (a lot!) about a small window company called Serious Materials. The company claims to produce the most energy efficient windows in the world, which other larger companies dispute — but that’s not the point. Watch the Stossel segment below and you’ll see how Serious got some high profile endorsements from President Obama and Vice President Biden, which is suspicious because the company’s vice president for policy is married to the overseer of President Obama’s weatherization program, Cathy Zoi. Amazingly, Serious Materials was the only “green” window company to receive some recent tax credits from the federal government.
Ms. Zoi may want to seek some legal counsel.
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Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 1.14.10 @ 10:45PM
Holy crap!! It just never seems to end, you kick another rock, and another F'ing snake crawls out from underneath. From head to toe, this entire Administration, and the Democratic Party, is a complete criminal enterprise. From healthcare, to global warming, to ACORN, and on, and on, and on, it's all a scam, it's all a lie, it's a complete and total criminal fraud!! I can't wait till Tuesday night, when the People of Massachusetts, fire the first shot across the bow of the real American Enemy, the internal Domestic Enemy, the Democratic Party, and their Allies, whoever they may be.
Gerry| 1.15.10 @ 10:44AM
Amen. The Pantywaist President and his lapdancing congresspeople have soiled their beds, and now need to sleep in them. The stench blends nicely with the smell of the payoffs and bribes from the current (C-Span open, no tired old ideologies, transparent, popularly supported) healthcare deals. President Obama-clown is a hypocrite, a liar, and unworthy of the position he holds; Czarists Pelosi and Chairman Reid are merely poorly bred incompetents acting as tyrants doing their master's bidding
Regina Turner| 1.15.10 @ 10:58AM
Please join me in praying that the citizens of MA will make the right choice and choose Brown. I pray daily for my country. Just a thought...if Brown wins, how long do you think Acorn and cronies will be finding uncounted ballots for Coakley in the trunks of cars, in boxes that were misplaced etc, etc. Wake up America!!!!
Jmulcahy| 1.15.10 @ 2:45AM
Bastiat must be laughing. Here is the broken window fallacy writ large with taxpayer money.
Keith Kennedy| 1.15.10 @ 5:35AM
I am vomiting. . . . WHO will lead us out of this? WHEN will we the taxpayer be liberated from such frauds as Obama, Biden, and... Serious?
Regina Turner| 1.15.10 @ 10:51AM
Mr. Kennedy, I am vomiting, too...everytime I read another disgusting story about the crookedness of this administration and the entire Dem party...or at least all of its leaders, it makes me sick. what makes me even sicker??? I work in a business with a union(I'm proudly NOT a member and am treated that way) is to hear these union thugs constantly extol how great Obama is and how he's having to fix all the problems left by the previous admin and blah, blah, blah!!!! Literally, I am scared to death for my country!
Pingback| 1.15.10 @ 9:53AM
Morning Bell: Bank Tax Misses the Real Bailout Deadbeats in Detroit and DC | The Foun links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Lynnie| 1.15.10 @ 10:28AM
His wife's vision of teams of people swarming neighborhoods for "retrofitting" is at least as disturbing as this obvious cronyism.
2old2givea| 1.16.10 @ 10:46PM
Yes, that one kind of hit me between the eyes, too. I think she called them "SWAT teams."
God help us.
Dale Monceaux| 1.15.10 @ 10:54AM
Now let's see if I understand this. McDonald's and other fast food chains don't allow family members participate in any of their customer contests. Here we have a company with an officer who is the husband of a Obama senior level administrator cashing in on $500k....but no conflict of interest? Oh yes, this is business as usual ..... in Chicago.
These deals are designed to funnel tax payer dollars through grants to companies who contribute the same dollars back to the DNC. This is nothing more than Obama administration funding DNC election campaigns with taxpayer dollars.
pdqBach| 2.18.10 @ 3:15PM
BINGO !
bluecollarbytes| 1.15.10 @ 10:56AM
from a serious tradesman: "Serious is not really new technology in any sense. They are a marketing machine and simply bought up old defunct window systems." ---
Sounds like a 21st century business plan though-align your company with the myth-o-Green and make sure you support the correct political goals.
ann kitay | 1.15.10 @ 1:49PM
just bought Pelosi's book "know your power" for 50 cents. She states her family did not raise her to be Speaker but they raised her to "be holy". okay everyone -on the count of one......
2old2givea| 1.16.10 @ 10:56PM
LOL!!! Thanks, after perusing the headlines and watching this video, I needed a good laugh. :-)
Violet| 1.15.10 @ 2:42PM
This is so typical of the Obama Administration.
There is nothing honest about any of them!
Ican`t wait til the wholebunch is out!
Wayne B| 1.15.10 @ 2:42PM
The quid pro quo of this administration makes the Republicans look positively sparkling clean. The shear arrogance of this administration and how they look down their noses at us, the little people, just makes me sick.
tboo| 1.15.10 @ 5:06PM
Obama was DIRECTLY involved in this!!!! Caught on tape supporting a company for his staffer!!! Impeach!! Impeach!!
Nancy Steger| 1.15.10 @ 5:28PM
How is it possible that there is no legal mechanism for removing blatantly corrupt leaders who are flouting the Constitution, systematically destroying the economy, and replacing the American system of government with socialist tyranny? Here we are, Americans, afraid of our own government. Certainly the Obama administration and the top Democrats in congress are guilty of misfeasance and malfaesance in office. Isn't there anyone who has "standing" sufficient to bring charges against these rampaging demagogues and stop their plunder?
dennymack| 1.15.10 @ 6:47PM
I just read an article in the Oregonian mocking Mr. Wendt of Jeld-Wen windows, who is a famously conservative/libertarian political donor in Oregon. Apparently one of his employees has gone to Washington to try to get some of those sweet federal dollars.
The tone was so smug: Oh the irony! Let's all have a superior liberal chuckle at the inconsistencies of free market jerks.
I guess when you are competing with a company that gets gifts, you have to get yours or just give up.
Remember when there were markets where one did not require political friends? Try to imagine a product you could produce now that could be truly "a-political." The one great freedom we overlook is the right to be free FROM politics.
Pingback| 1.15.10 @ 7:04PM
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Black Knight| 1.16.10 @ 3:14PM
The only next step to complete the success story is to give a tax credit to those that purchase "Serious Materials". Obama the chocolate swirl Robin Hood for the modern day world, without the "Negro Dialect". By the way Rachel Maddow should come clean and say she was a man that had a sex operation.
Walt K| 1.16.10 @ 8:27PM
This must be the transparency that Barry Soetoro, alias Barach Obama, was speaking of when he was running for president. It's so obvious, they are so crooked. Seems quite transparent.
Vern Reece| 1.16.10 @ 8:56PM
This is Socialism, the elites live good the rest of us peasants just exist to make life for the elites.
White Knight| 1.17.10 @ 1:42AM
Company posted response with data showing the report wasn't accurate after all.
http://blog.seriousmaterials.com/?p=1007
Trackback| 1.17.10 @ 11:55PM
Crony Capitalism Chicago Style, on AMERICAN DIGEST, links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Doubting Thomas| 1.19.10 @ 9:28AM
That's such a wonderful explanation by the company. And I'm sure it is just a coincidence that the "second plant" happens to be in Chicago. Obama. Chicago. No relationship there, right? Just clean little hands building the worlds greenest windows. But what does the "green" stand for?
featuredplayer| 1.19.10 @ 10:53AM
I was wonder why was mayor daley and dick the durban werre in the video. The Chicago Machine of the depressed state of Illinois had SeriousWindows & SeriousGlass acquire assets of the former Republic Windows and Doors in March 2009. The 268,000 square foot plant is based in Chicago, Illinois. Back room crony deal Chicago Style.. Reminds me of some of Obambi's real estate deals that sent Resko to jail. I wish this bunch the same...
Boots| 1.19.10 @ 4:38PM
If possible, this deal is actually worse than it looks.
A unionized company known as Republic Windows, located in Chicago (natch) filed for bankruptcy. Here's the write up from Wikipedia:
"On December 3, 2008, the executives of the company announced to its workers that it would end operations on December 5 due to Bank of America, its main lender, canceling its line of credit due to a severe downturn in business at the plant.
When the company's 260 employees learned that the plant was indeed closing permanently on December 2, 2008, they came to collect their paychecks. The company informed them that the employees would not be compensated for their accrued sick or vacation days and that their health insurance would be terminated on December 5....
The union lodged a complaint that the company was acting in violation of the WARN Act, a Federal law that requires companies to give workers 60 days' notice before mass layoffs.....
Change of ownership: In February 2009, Serious Materials, a Sunnyvale, California-based company that produces environmentally friendly building materials, announced that it had purchased the buildings and assets of Republic Windows. The company announced that it intended to hire back all of the former factory workers."
In Chicago, this plant closing became a local cause for local corrupt politicians to grandstand. All of them, Blago, Obama, Dick Durbin, Jesse Jackson Jr, all posed for pictures at the plant.
So now we find out that a politically connected company has taken over the shuttered & bankrupt Republic Windows and reopened it as a "green" business, complete with an Obama crony at the helm and lots of "green" money from Washington. Sweet.
You might be asking, what happened to the original owner of Republic Windows, the guy who went bankrupt? Oh, he's in jail: "...a judge hit former chief executive officer Richard Gillman with a whopping $10 million bail, he was led away to Cook County Jail while wearing a pin-striped suit, white collared-shirt and a dazed expression....Prosecutors laid out their case in an unusually detailed 56-page filing"
Pingback| 1.20.10 @ 7:36PM
Weatherization Czarina gives stimulus money to husbands company! | Satelec 2003 links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
s.ross| 1.26.10 @ 4:40PM
As if George Bush never helped any of his contributors . Both parties are crooked. We need a viable 3rd party. There isn't 10 cents difference in either party. Wake up America!!!!
Bill Jones| 2.20.10 @ 2:51PM
Serious apparently never got any stimulus money. And Zoi didn't work there when they opened those plants with their own money and hired back workers. We should be praising this company if they really have receieved zero money, when so many others did.
They posted a response to stossel:
http://blog.seriousmaterials.com/?p=1007
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wholesale beads | 3.30.11 @ 4:43AM
good read