It's exactly the same...as long as you ignore the fact it's not even remotely the same.

With the failure of federally-funded solar energy company Solyndra one of the hallmarks of the Romney campaign line of attack, it appears that Mitt Romney will have some explaining to do soon about a similar endeavor that failed in Massachusetts after receiving support from RomneyÂ’s administration. The Boston Herald reports today that Konarka Technologies, a solar panel developer that received Massachusetts state funds, filed for bankruptcy yesterday.

onarka had been around for eleven years but filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy yesterday and laid off all its workers, immediately ceasing operations. As the paper explains, Romney, as governor, had provided $1.5 million in a renewable energy subsidy to the company in 2003.

This story involves two things I don't like, government subsidies to private corporations and Mitt Romney but this is just pathetic.

First, $1.5 million is just a little less than $500+ million.

Second, unlike Obama and Solyndra, there's no accusation that Romney steered the money to donors.

Most importantly, the Romney administration gave the money NINE years ago. The company survived nearly a DECADE after getting the state subsidy.

Solyndra on the other hand went under less than 2 years after getting Obama's largess.

In fact, Obama was shoveling money to Solyndra as fast as possible even as auditors were saying the company was failing.

So yeah, other than being different in every way, they are exactly the same.

Added: Quality snark from KevinInABQ on Twitter

so I suppose O's supporters can identify his Staples: the business Obama helped get rolling while a private citizen.

Sure but how many communities has Romney organized? Because that's important stuff you know.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:40 AM | Comments (136)
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Ultra-low bandwidth edition.

Posted by: andy at 03:55 AM | Comments (190)
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When A Freedom Or Personal Choice Is Taken Away, It Won't Be Coming Back.

What's next in line for abolishment?

As the freedom to choose and to manage our own lives slowly gets taken from us, what will be next?

Will your television have a timer limiting its use to a certain number of hours a day after which it shuts itself down, a one gyro limit at the Greek restaurant or maybe the cornbread side being outlawed at your local rib place because its deemed an extraneous and extremely fattening unnecessary addition to the meal?

How about a monitor for supermarket shopping carts that limits the total caloric content inside, and when a certain level is reached nothing else can be added?

So why doesn't Mayor Nanny Bloomberg just outright ban cigarettes? They are far worse for you than a 16 oz. soda or a Mocha Latte Grande right? C'mon Nanny. If you are gonna go banning stuff for our own good, just put your money where your mouth is and ban EVERYTHING that is bad for you no matter what size. Oh wait, you need those precious taxes on some of those items don't cha? See: Illinois Plan To Fund Medicaid With Cigarette Tax. more...

Posted by: CDR M at 05:30 PM | Comments (733)
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Staycation fever!

There's some good news behind the discouraging headlines on the economy: Gas is getting cheaper. At least two states had stations selling gas for $2.99 on Friday and it could fall below $3 in more areas over the weekend.

A plunge in oil prices has knocked more than 30 cents off the price of a gallon of gas in most parts of the U.S. since early April. The national average is now $3.61. Experts predict further decline in the next few weeks.

If Americans spend less filling their tanks, they'll have more money for discretionary purchases. The downside? Lower oil and gas prices are symptoms of weakening economic conditions in the U.S. and around the globe.

Just a small downside, though. The main thing to keep in mind, the take-away, is that Obama has figured out how to keep gas prices low-- global depression!!!

Via @slublog.

Posted by: Ace at 03:58 PM | Comments (267)
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There's a fascinating article in the NYT Friday about the cyberattacks on Iranian nuclear facilities. It's really good and you should Read The Whole Thing... but not right now.

Short version, the STUXNET worm (and maybe the newer FLAME) are weapons in a joint US/Israeli cyberwar against Iran. Wow, what a scoop!

This account of the American and Israeli effort to undermine the Iranian nuclear program is based on interviews over the past 18 months with current and former American, European and Israeli officials involved in the program, as well as a range of outside experts. None would allow their names to be used because the effort remains highly classified, and parts of it continue to this day.

Not a scoop. Not investigative journalism. You might get 1 or 2 insiders to breach security and tell stories. But this was Full Cooperation. NYT didn't have to find these people - these people must have been told to tell NYT everything they needed for the story.

So, unusually, I'm not blaming NYT for breaking US security. This had to come from the White House. President Obama.

('shop by Slublog)

The story is a campaign ad. And it reveals a bunch of Top Secret stuff. National Security info.

more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 03:17 PM | Comments (148)
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Two great "Quotes of the Day" from Allah you've probably already read. Really outstanding digest of the two most important political trends this week -- pundits are finally getting that this is a depression, not a "recession" we've recovered from, and there will be no "mini-boom" for Obama.

There had not been one since the depression started. Although it's always possible something good will happen, there's no particular reason to expect the depression to suddenly end, and certainly no specific reason to expect it will do so in time to aid Obama.

The other big news about the structural dynamic of this election is that Romney is winning over skeptical conservatives by demonstrating he's not just willing to fight, he's eager to do so.

Now, I gotta tell ya, if McCain were running against Obama with a record of failure and economic depression, even McCain would be blasting him on this, too.

But Romney's doing a little more than that-- the campaign's protest of Axelrod demonstrates he's willing to fight fire with fire, and not just clap himself on the back for being "above the fray."

Anyone who's above the fray shouldn't be running for President. This is sort of the dictionary definition of a "fray."

Moe Lane flashes back to the 2008 campaign, in which John McCain was expected to be a boyscout, and meanwhile Barack Obama was free to goof on McCain's inability to write an email -- an inability caused by the fact that his arms were busted up by the North Vietnamese in a torture camp, and so he doesn't type his own messages.

There's a kicker to that story, too-- it's worse than I remembered.

So yes, it's not 2008 anymore.

Posted by: Ace at 01:56 PM | Comments (198)
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I missed this a couple of weeks ago. From the New York Times:

The companies, Titan Salvage, which is based in Florida, and Micoperi, an Italian underwater construction and offshore contractor, plan to lift the half-submerged vessel with pullers mounted on a platform and a subsea platform to roll it on, using water-filled caissons to stabilize it, and finally tow it to a yet unidentified Italian port. There, it will be demolished.

. . .

The 951-foot-long Costa Concordia is estimated to weigh 54,000 tons, 6,000 of which are the water and debris that have been cramming its 17 decks for four months. Raising such a tremendous weight from its right side, now deformed by the granite rocks underneath, has to be an inch-by-inch movement, experts said. Just rolling it onto the platform will take a few days, the company said.

“It would have been easier to cut it up in sections, but it’d have produced a tremendous amount of debris,” said Joseph Farrell Jr., chief executive of Resolve Marine Group, based in the United States, which had also bid to salvage the Costa Concordia. “Authorities wanted to have it removed in one hunk.”

Salvagers are set to stabilize the wreck by the end of August and then start building the underwater platform to help rotate the vessel. According to the companiesÂ’ schedule, the ship will be rotated at the beginning of December and floated one month later.

Open thread.

Follow me on Twitter.

Posted by: rdbrewer at 11:07 AM | Comments (184)
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Brookfield's absentee totals have blown 2010's numbers out of the water, at 4530 submitted with 387 not yet returned. While it sounds small, consider this is a quarter of what Milwaukee has reported so far...despite having 1/16th the population. We are talking a turnout four times higher than Tom Barrett's home turf.

Without busing and zazz.

Posted by: CAC at 11:00 AM | Comments (62)
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So, on my venturing about the interwebs I saw some mention that polling screwed up the California recall race in 2003, and a few folks trying to prop up Barrett's internals, arguing that the nonpartisan polling was off. Recall races are "hard to gauge", they argued.

Well, let's take a look at the polling from 2003.

Yes (recalling Davis) averaged 55%, result? 55.5%.
No (saving Davis) averaged 42%, result? 45%.

Internal polling released by Davis, insisting the race was closer, pegged him losing his job by a 48-50 margin.

The final internal was off by 8 points. The average? A fraction on yes, three on no. Pretty damn good for a "highly unpredictable election".

Polling on the same RCP average right now (which I disagree with because they are using the RV model from PPP instead of the LV model): 6.6% for Walker.

Internals/Pro-Barrett Polls? +2 Walker (Barrett's), +3 Walker(DGA), and tied(Greater Wisconsin Committee), so under 2%.

We will know the end result in a few days, but if the 2003 recall showed us anything, it is that an aggregate of available nonpartisan polling can be very close to the final result.

And last-minute push polls can be terribly off.

Updates on Early Voting + Absentees:
TOTAL statewide 182k (230k in 2010, 633k in 2008 )
TOTAL Milwaukee 18k thru same period for statewide tab, 19k est final Friday
TOTAL Madison 14k thru same period for statewide tab, 16k final Friday
TOTAL Appleton 3k
TOTAL Waukesha(city only) 4300 (thru early Friday)
TOTAL Share of statewide vote from Madison+Milwaukee is nearly identical to that in 2010 and 2008. No bump (so far).

As I have said numerous times, Barrett needs explosively high turnout in Madison and Milwaukee and for the more Republican areas to have average turnout, so far the Republican areas have no intention of lying down. The numbers for absentees include early votes as well, so the number of early in-person voters in Milwaukee is even less than the total so far returned. The Democrats put a lot of effort and coin into busing their least reliable voters to boost Barrett, but any hopes of approaching 2008 participation die with the results reported.

**UPDATE** I will continue to drop numbers as I get them from the GAB and various counties, but it looks very clear the rumored "30k a day!" during early voting was an epic fail. Dane county will turn out tremendously, but the same enthusiasm in voter-rich Milwaukee (so far) isn't there.

Posted by: CAC at 08:02 AM | Comments (105)
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Rats are different than people, but they aren't that different.

Dramatic video of paralysed rats walking and even climbing stairs has given new hope of a cure for people with spinal cord injuries.

Swiss scientists were able to stimulate nerves to grow around damage in the spinal cord, restoring movement in the animals' hind legs.

"Our rats have become athletes when just weeks before they were completely paralysed," Dr Gregoire Courtine of the EPFL research group in Lausanne said.

"I am talking about 100% recuperation of voluntary movement."

The scientists injected chemicals directly into the spinal cord, and stimulated the nerves with electrical impulses.

...

The research is published in the journal Science and the scientists hope to start clinical trials in paralysed patients "within a year or two"...

Posted by: Ace at 07:43 AM | Comments (110)
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