What planet are these eco-marxists idiots living on? Certainly not the one where the jobs recession is the longest since WWII.

The Obama Regime continues to flush your hard earned dollars down their green black hole. Click for sound effect.

(WaPo)The U.S. government last year announced a $10 million award, dubbed the “L Prize,” for any manufacturer that could create a “green” but affordable light bulb.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the prize would spur industry to offer the costly bulbs, known as LEDs, at prices “affordable for American families.” There was also a “Buy America” component. Portions of the bulb would have to be made in the United States.

Now the winning bulb is on the market.

The price is $50.

Retailers said the bulb, made by Philips, is likely to be too pricey to have broad appeal. Similar LED bulbs are less than half the cost.
……
Still, the contest set price goals. According to the L Prize guidelines, manufacturers were “strong­ly encouraged to offer products at prices that prove cost-effective and attractive to buyers, and therefore more successful in the market.”

The target retail price, including rebates from utilities, was to be $22 in the first year, $15 in the second year and $8 in the third year.

Continue reading >>>

$28 shy of the price goal set by the L Prize contest, yet Phillips’ $50 light bulb was  still chosen as the winner. Failure must have been an option.

Reality is not their friend but apparently the crack pipe is their BFF.

Image source: Liberally Conservative’s “Obama’s Green Corruption“

…It’s A Bullsh*t Artist.

Cato Institute scholars Malou Innocent, Chris Edwards, Neal McCluskey, Ilya Shapiro, Jerry Taylor, Dan Mitchell and Dan Ikenson respond to President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union Address/campaign speech.

John Podhoretz (“ignore the headline“) concludes his analysis of O’s SOTU by zeroing in on Obama’s “gravest weakness“:

He concluded with a deserved salute to the extraordinary work of SEAL Team Six in killing Osama Bin Laden. His description of how they did it was gripping — until he decided to claim that it had something to teach us about America:

“No one built this country on their own. This nation is great because we built it together. This nation is great because we worked as a team. This nation is great because we get each other’s backs.”

It is a tragedy for this nation that its president believes this. America is great not because it’s a team. America is great because it is a nation whose founding documents elevated the rights of the individual.

Aside from his poor record, this misunderstanding of the US is Obama’s gravest weakness as a general-election candidate, and the Republicans running for president should take heed and go at it.

Suggested reading: Heritage Foundation’s reaction roundup, and Heritage’s Lachlan Markay fact check here: 10 Dubious Claims from Obama’s State of the Union

Susan Duclos at Wake Up America reports:

The AP, via Seattlepi.com, takes a look at Obama’s rhetoric Tuesday night during his State of the Union address and how it fits with the facts and political circumstances and it takes them three pages to fact check what Obama said and compare it to reality and finds Obama’s version of the state our country to be lacking, containing half truths or misinformation.

Read WaPo’s fact check here.

Fun Fact:

President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address again rated at an 8th grade comprehension level, on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test — the third lowest score of any State of the Union address since 1934.

The University of Minnesota’s Smart Politics conducted an analysis on the last 70 State of the Union addresses and found that President Obama’s three addresses have the lowest grade average of any modern president. “Obama’s average grade-level score of 8.4 is more than two grades lower than the 10.7 grade average for the other 67 addresses written by his 12 predecessors,” they conclude.

Also see:

• Obama State of the Union Rhetoric Ad Nauseam
• Are you better off than you were 4 years ago?
• Obama Speech Osawatomie, Kansas (Dec, 7 2011): ‘Capitalism and Liberty Don’t Work’, Never Have –Milton Friedman’s Rebuttal [Video]
• Obama Flashback Video: Bush Presided Over An “Orgy” Of Spending

Obama’s Enron.

Crony Venture Socialism

“Here at this site, Solyndra expects to make enough solar panels each year to generate 500 megawatts of electricity. And over the lifetime of this expanded facility, that could be like replacing as many as eight coal-fired power plants. It’s also worth noting, to achieve this doubling of our share of solar capacity, we actually need to make four times as many solar panels, because other countries are adding capacity, too. Nobody in this race is standing still.”
~ Barack Obama –Solyndra INC. Freemont, California May 26, 2010

“Just words“.

Obama’s pet green shell company went belly up after having received over a half of a BILLION dollars in taxpayer monies. And adding insult to injury, they have now been caught on tape destroying MILLIONS of dollars of parts.

And YOU PAID for IT.

CBS San Francisco has the scoop:

FREMONT (CBS 5) — After filing for bankruptcy last year, Fremont solar company Solyndra still owes American taxpayers half a billion dollars. But CBS 5 caught them destroying millions of dollars worth of parts.

At Solyndra’s sprawling complex in Fremont, workers in white jumpsuits were unwrapping brand new glass tubes used in solar panels last week. They are the latest, most cutting-edge solar technology, and they are being thrown into dumpsters.

Forklifts brought one pallet after another piled high with the carefully packaged glass. Slowly but surely it all ended up shattered.

And it’s not a few loads. Hundreds of thousands of tubes on shrink-wrapped pallets will meet a similar demise.

Solyndra paid at least $2 million for the specialized glass. A CBS 5 crew found one piece lying in the parking lot. Solyndra still owes the German company that made the tubes close to another $8 million.

So why is a bankrupt company that owes a fortune to creditors, including American taxpayers, throwing away millions of dollars worth of assets?

More >>>

Image source: Solyndra ‘Green’ Executives: $100,000+ In Obama Donations And 20+ White House Trips- Sad Hill News

READ:

Obama’s Solyndra scandal reeks of the Chicago Way

Solyndra Not the Only Company to Benefit from Democrat Ties

Labor Department May Sink Another $14 Million into Solyndra

Solyndra Employee: From Day One, Everyone Knew That Our Solar Panels Were Uncompetitive… Including President Obama

Obama Administration On Solyndra Board For Months During $500 Million Loss

Also see:

Obama’s First 2012 Campaign Offense is Defense?

CBS News Report: 11 More Solyndras In Obama Energy Program –5 Bankrupt Rest On Shaky Ground

Obama’s $5 BILLION Tax-Payer Funded Weatherization Program Fraught with Mismanagement, Waste and Fraud

DOE Gives $4.5 BILLION Taxpayer Backed Loan Guarantee to Solar Manufacturer

(Related posts below, automatically generated)

Obama’s Failed Green Venture Crony Socialism You PAID for!

This is an outrage! Good money after bad.

(Video below the fold)

"Every day that you build this expanded facility, as you fill orders for solar panels to ship around the world, you’re demonstrating that the promise of clean energy isn’t just an article of faith -- not anymore." ~ Obama Solyndra Fremont, CA. May 26, 2011

Obama’s energy department didn’t stop with the failed crony company Solyndra. In total; the failing/failed ‘clean energy’ companies were collectively approved for $6.5 BILLION in federal (taxpayer) assistance.

Five have filed for bankruptcy. The junk bond rated Beacon Power, Evergreen Solar, Spectra Watt, AES (a subsidiary of ‘Eastern Energy) and of course Solyndra.

The others are not far behind; Nevada Geo Thermo (NGP) personally endorsed by Harry Reid, the recipient of $98.5 MILLION in loan guarantees, warns of multiple potential defaults, Sun Power received a $1.5 BILLION loan guarantee after a French oil company took it over, now owes more than it is worth, First Solar (the biggest S&P 500 loser in 2011) even though the CEO was forced out, taxpayers were forced to pony up $3 BILLION in loans.

CBS News takes a look at 11 more Solyndras that were part of Obama’s Energy Program (January 13, 2012)

GOPICYMI

In related news:

Friday night doc dump: WH knew before Solyndra workers flew

(Hot Air) –Two months ago, Congressional investigators discovered that the Department of Energy urged the now-defunct Solyndra in late October 2010 to delay the announcement of hundreds of layoffs to just after the midterm elections. Last night, the Obama administration conducted a Friday-night document dump in a long-awaited response to a demand for documentation on communications related to Solyndra, and it turns out that the White House knew about the layoffs in advance, too:
……
Something smells very badly. It’s clear that the Obama administration at some level used taxpayer funds as leverage to manipulate a private enterprise for purely electoral benefit to the President, and it seems clear that the direction to do this came from the White House.

Read it all!

Salt in the gaping taxpayer wound:

BANKRUPT Solyndra asks judge to pay out $500,000 in bonuses

(San Jose Mecury) –Solyndra, the Fremont solar panel company that laid off more than 1,000 workers upon declaring bankruptcy last summer, has reportedly requested to pay remaining employees up to $500,000 in bonuses.
……
Senior executives at Solyndra collected hefty quarterly bonuses — ranging from $37,000 to $60,000 apiece, with some executives receiving both rounds of bonuses — within six months of the company’s closure last August, when about 1,100 workers were laid off without severance.

X-Posted here.

Douglas V. Gibbs at Political Pistachio links…thanks!