I Question The Timing.

We are the corrupt hacks we've been waiting for.

The Obama administration urged officers of the struggling solar company Solyndra to postpone announcing planned layoffs until after the November 2010 midterm elections, newly released e-mails show.

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SolyndraÂ’s chief executive warned the Energy Department on Oct. 25, 2010, that he intended to announce worker layoffs Oct. 28. He said he was spurred by numerous calls from reporters and potential investors about rumors the firm was in financial trouble and was planning to lay off workers and close one of its two plants.

But in an Oct. 30, 2010, e-mail, advisers to SolyndraÂ’s primary investor, Argonaut Equity, explain that the Energy Department had strongly urged the company to put off the layoff announcement until Nov. 3. The midterm elections were held Nov. 2, and led to Republicans taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“DOE continues to be cooperative and have indicated that they will fund the November draw on our loan (app. $40 million) but have not committed to December yet,” a Solyndra investor adviser wrote Oct. 30. “They did push very hard for us to hold our announcement of the consolidation to employees and vendors to Nov. 3rd – oddly they didn’t give a reason for that date.”

That's bad enough. It would be even worse if that second loan was made with the expectation Solyndra was going to fail, and the administration knew it would lose the money, but loaned another $75 million only for purposes of pushing off the bankruptcy until after the election.

Steven Chu is being questioned by Congress on Thursday.

Thanks to Slublog.

Jonathan Altar Hardest Hit: rockmom is laughing at Altar's recent piece about how Obama's managed to stay so untainted by scandal. And how he dismissed Solyndra as not a scandal at all, so suck on that, wingers.

Posted by: Ace at 08:22 AM | Comments (186)
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Apparently the new Cowboys stadium is loaded up with art stuff, or something.

Who knew?

Here's the current standings,

Newtmentum:

Muletrain2016: 90
CountryBlumkins: 84
scott: 82
Graboid:81
Honeybadger: 81
FMG: 81
Moochelle's Large Butt: 81
chemwonk: 81

CainTrain:

Gabe Malor: 77
rdbrewer: 76
Ben: 73
CDR M: 73
Russ from Winterset: 71
Andy: 71
DiT: 65

OT, no sooner had NYC cleaned out Zuccotti Park, than the OWS knotheads lawyered up and got an injunction from Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lucy Billings to let em back in. Bloomberg says he'll go to court and fight it.

Unsurprisingly, Justice Lucy Billings was an ACLU lawyer for 25 years. Knock me over with a feather.

Thanks to Russ for the bio, and of Ben and CDR M for the cypherin.

UPDATE: Creator of OWS says it's time for a tactical retreat. [via Allah]

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 06:02 AM | Comments (262)
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Why Americans won't do dirty jobs. That attitude may change if the economy doesn't turn around soon.

A wee bit of good news this morning: the NYPD has cleared the hippie infestation from Zucotti Park in lower Manhattan. I expect that the stench will linger for a few days but will dissipate in time.

Monetary and fiscal policy have failed us. All that leaves is...Thunderdome! Who run Barter Town?

Simply graduating more STEM majors wonÂ’t magically fix the jobs situation, at least in the short term. And there is something to be said for the liberal arts (as classically-taught, anyway); art and poetry are achievements of civilization just as much as buildings and bridges. The problem at base is that we have a vast mismatch between the skills our economy needs right now and the people in the workplace right now. When people in college decide on a course of study, theyÂ’re making a bet on what the world is going to look like in 10 or 20 years, not on what it looks like at the present moment.

You want some horrifying chart-fu? HereÂ’s your horrifying chart-fu.
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Posted by: Monty at 04:47 AM | Comments (203)
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Happy Tuesday. Some links to get you started:

Police evict OWS from Zuccotti Park -- the Mayor says the Occupiers will be allowed to return, but without tents or sleeping bags.

PETA is Pissed at Mario -- things I didn't know: Tanooki Mario is based on an actual "tanuki racoon-dog" that is prized for its fur.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:50 AM | Comments (193)
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Why This Shouldn't be Newt's Moment

I know that Gingrich seems to enjoying a sudden boomlet as the latest ABR candidate and I hate to rain on everyone's parade but... he's not The One. And I say this as a former big Gingrich fan.

Back in the 80s I used to watch CSPAN in the afternoons just to catch Gingrich's speeches to an empty House chamber when he was a little known GOP backbencher (yes I was a political geek even back then). I loved him initially as Speaker although my admiration faded quite a bit by then end of his term.

And during the 2000s he fell further as he always seemed to be more in love with whatever was the Next Big Thing and his own cleverness than say the conservative principles he used to espouse. The 2008 Pelosi-on-the-couch anti-global warming commercial was when I pretty much gave up on him as a serious conservative. And this was not his only flirtation with big government technocracy:

Ever wonder why Newt Gingrich has so many ideas?

It's pretty simple. Ideas come to you easily when you have no principles to get in the way of your roaming untrained intellect. So what are some of the ideas Newt Gingrich has promoted? Are they even conservative ideas?

* He promoted the return of the Fairness Doctrine.
* He was for a federal individual health-care mandate, the lynchpin of ObamaCare.
* He was practically spooning Nancy Pelosi in commercials about the need for government action on global warming.
* He supports green energy projects [Solyndras] and farm-subsidies.
* Even as late as this year he was pitching for more government intervention in the health-care system at the progressive Brookings Institution.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:10 PM | Comments (884)
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Amazing stuff. Rebuilding damaged heart muscle following a coronary attack.

Seeking to reverse heart injury, Dr. Marban used a catheter with tiny pincers to snip bits of healthy tissue from Milles' heart. Since the heart produces so few stem cells on its own, Dr. Marban in a laboratory coaxed the bits of tissue into manufacturing millions of stem cells .

He then deposited Milles' own laboratory-grown stem cells into the damaged area of his heart, hoping it would repair itself and beat more strongly. Previous studies have used bone marrow stem cells with mostly disappointing results, prompting Dr. Marban to try this new approach.

Mare over at The Hostages linked me this one about treating arthritic knee joints. I have one of these and oh hell is it giving me fits (cold front approaching, it's like a barometer or somethin). Stem cells siphoned from tummy fat and injected into the inflamed knee joint, slowing and even halting the destruction of cartilage in the joint. Cells from tummy fat! I could save both my knees. Hell, I got enough tummy fat stem cells to save three thousand knees.

It's remarkable that all these recent advances seem to have nothing to do with embryonic stem cells, and everything to do with adult ones. Thank goodness we don't play politics with healthcare.

...

Oh.

Well darn.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 05:29 PM | Comments (139)
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Not sure if this helps him at all, given that a lot of people, including conservatives, suspect him of being a crony beneficiary of insider-ish dealings.

It helps with me, of course, but then I've been on this train for a while. I don't really count. more...

Posted by: Ace at 01:15 PM | Comments (551)
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Maybe "diagnosably authentic," alas.

Here's lots of that True Conservatism I keep hearing about.

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said Monday that he believes public employees should be allowed to bargain collectively on wages and other benefits as long as it does not create an undue burden on taxpayers.

Extremely, extremely conservative.

We freak out when Romney punts on this issue in Ohio, but when Cain says it, it's True Conservatism Defined.

Then again, maybe it's just because he doesn't know what he's talking about.

Cain also appeared to be unclear on the issue of collective bargaining as it involves federal employees. Asked if he thought federal employees should have the ability to bargain collectively, Cain said: "They already have it, don't they?"

Told they didn't, he said, "They have unions."

I can see how someone missed that. It's only been mentioned sixty five thousand times in the various state-level union disputes.

Look, I do in fact understand that unions are popular and that it's a hard sell to do what Walker did (or what Kasich tries). I understand the political value of moderation of rhetoric on the subject.

In fact, I approve.

But what infuriates me is this argument from the position of pragmatism will be trotted out by Cain's supporters, who will nonetheless turn around and savage people for failing to take the True Conservative Line steadfastly enough themselves.

Which is it? If you're telling me we have to go with this guy just for the hardcore no-deviations ideology, I'm going to need him to be hard-core and no-deviations on ideology.

And if we're willing to give some wiggle room, I want to know why candidates like Perry are rejected out of hand for having one bigger deviation on ideology and two small ones.

By the way, I'm freaking the shit out over this black man being all sexy-like with this white blonde woman. I am scared as hell of this. Next thing you know Toure will come over and have sex with my food.

Below, more True Conservatism on public employees, and then some authenticity on Libya.

Thanks to a coblogger, but I won't say who, because I'm sure he doesn't want to be called a RINO 40 times today.
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Posted by: Ace at 12:55 PM | Comments (264)
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Footage from the International Space Station.

And if that's not neat enough, some are claiming they see evidence the solar system lost a fifth gas giant, sometime in its distant past.

It's actually a complicated bit of semi-proof, about simulations of the early development of the solar system not working right unless a fifth gas giant, about the size of Jupiter, was once present.

Which is my way of saying "I don't understand it." Something about how the terrestrial planets and gas giants migrated to their current positions. You give it a try.

Thanks to Truman North and, I think, RDBrewer.

Posted by: Ace at 12:20 PM | Comments (71)
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She said she had a witness but it turned out to be a hearsay witness-- Sharon Bialek's former boyfreind, Victor Zukerman, who says Bialek told him of the charges at the time the harassment is alleged to have taken place.

"She said something had happened and Mr. Cain had touched her in an inappropriate manner," Zukerman said at a news conference in Shreveport, La. "She said she had handled it and did not want to discuss it further."

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He said that his ex-girlfriend "became livid as she heard Cain's denials," and that she was not surprised that other women had made harassment allegations against Cain "based on her experience" with the former Godfather's Pizza CEO during his time as head of the restaurant association.

Like Bialek, Zuckerman admitted that he had faced recent financial troubles — including seeking bankruptcy protection for his medical practice — but said he was not seeking any financial benefit in coming forward.

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He also said he was the one who suggested that Bialek contact Gloria Allred,[.]

"If he hadn't denied it, we wouldn't be here today," Allred said. "He wants to end this, he should just come clean. We'll have to see what happens next."

He says he's also a registered Republican, who first met Cain in 1996, and denies being put up to this by a "rival campaign."

TRScoop uploaded the video of the conference, in case you want to watch.

Posted by: Ace at 11:49 AM | Comments (123)
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