Yakety Yak (a.k.a.: "Up-ton Yours America!!!")

Take out the papers and the trash,
Or you don't get no spending cash.
If you don't scrub that kitchen floor,
You ain't gonna rock and roll no more.

Yakety yak (don't talk back)

Don't talk back!

The Coasters, "Yakety Yak", 1958

I came across something yesterday which may, or may not, be news to anyone.  Discussing it here is kind of like hearing that a well-known neighborhood alcoholic was involved in an alcohol-related motor vehicle accident.  It's news, but it's really not.  

But maybe if your alcoholic neighbor were piloting a SPACE SHIP (while drunk) at the time of the accident?  Okay, THIS would be news.

"Marvin" One Very Angry Martian

Unfortunately, no Martians, no space ships, and no alcoholics piloting alien craft events occur in today's post.   

Today's post is about your run-of-the-mill-after-5pm-on-a-Friday-Obama-Administration action which everyone in the White House hopes no one in Your House sees, reads, or talks about.  Yeah, THIS is one of THOSE posts.

As reported in the Huffington Post: 
WASHINGTON -- The White House Counsel's Office has formally rejected a congressional subpoena of documents relating to the $535 million loan guarantee that the administration shepherded for Solyndra, the now-defunct solar energy company.

In a letter to the chairs of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation, Kathryn H. Ruemmler, counsel to the president, calls the request for documents made by House Republicans a "vast fishing expedition" and a "significant intrusion on Executive Branch interests."

...

In rejecting the subpoena, the White House has taken one of its sharpest stands to date against the House GOP's oversight capacity. When Republicans gained control of the House in the 2010 midterm elections, many predicted that these types of standoffs would become routine. Only recently, however, have investigations into administration actions or programs, such as the loan program in which Solyndra participated and the gunrunning initiative known as Operation Fast and Furious, gained real national attention

Yes, it's certainly nice to know that the Three Branches of Government all begin, and end, with the Executive Branch.  I found the following graphic on a site called 'Congress for Kids', I'm including it here in case anyone from the Senate stops by to read this post (we must keep all these LARGE hard-to-follow concepts understandable to the average Harvard-educated Lawyer in Congress - you know, in case they nodded off during US Government Studies 101):

"To avoid the risk of dictatorship or tyranny, the group divided the new government into three parts, or branches: the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch."

Re-reading this last statement again, I'm trying to find the part that says, "Unless the Executive Branch doesn't WANT to..."

Hold on a moment, nope, I'm still not seeing it. 

So what's going on here?

Evil Republicans in the House want to find out why the Obama Administration loaned $535 MILLION of your money to Solyndra, a company, which, if you believe the US Treasury Department: 

The Department of Energy was not following re-finance guidelines AND the loan itself was a, "Really Bad Idea". 

• Was it because of something they read in Solyndra's "Green Technology" brochure? 
• Was it because the President thought it would be cool to take over another company / industry, as he did with Automotive Manufacturing, Finance, and Banking? 
• Was it because he felt like he 'owed' it to someone to do his 'Fair Share' (with your money) to help out some nice folks who helped him get elected? 

Shoot, I don't know, and apparently, the President doesn't want anyone else to know, either. 

Not because he has anything to hide, but rather, because this request would be such a burdensome undertaking on the part of his Administration.  His team doesn't have the time required to respond to the request 'as is'. 

They're too busy taking Victory Laps after having driven unemployment all the way down to an unbelievable 9%! 

(Yes, I know it was 5.4 % when the President was elected, but why pile on now?  That's news from YEARS ago, and I'm trying to discuss YESTERDAY's news...)

Yes, the Administration will agree to produce 'several' of the items requested in the "Legally Prepared and Delivered Subpoena", but no, that other branch of the US Government is just asking for 'Too Much'...

Okay, this Administration is WAY too busy to answer questions, but House Committee Chairman, Fred Upton, R-MI, has a few questions of his own (if it's not too much trouble)...

The following quote was found on The Washington Examiner:

“We have been reasonable every step of the way in this investigation, and it is a shame that the Obama Administration and House Democrats continue to put up partisan roadblocks to hide the truth from taxpayers. Solyndra was a jobs program gone bad, and we must learn the lessons of Solyndra as we work to turn our economy around and put folks back to work.

Our judicious and methodical work over the last eight months has garnered tens of thousands of pages of documents from DOE and OMB that have proven we are on the right track. Now, we need to know the White House’s role in the Solyndra debacle in order to learn the full truth about why taxpayers now find themselves a half billion dollars in the hole.

The White House could have avoided the need for subpoena authorizations if they had simply chosen to cooperate. That would have been the route we preferred, and frankly, it would have been better for the White House to get the information out now, rather than continue to drag this out.

Our request for documents is reasonable - we are not demanding the President’s blackberry messages as we are respectful of Executive Privilege. What is the West Wing trying to hide? We owe it to American taxpayers to find out.”

Oh Rep. Upton, you some kind of crazy man, aren't you???  Aren't YOU!!!???!!!

No, but if you believe the reporting seen and read in other news outlets, you'd think that he were... 

I end this post in the manner in which I began it:

Yakety yak (don't talk back)

Keep your mouth shut, America.  They'll tell you what you need to know. 

Well, maybe.

Have a nice weekend folks...