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Mark Steyn has a downer of a column.
“It’s the end of the world as we know it,” sang the popular musical artistes REM many years ago. And it is. REM has announced that they’re splitting up after almost a third of a century. But these days who isn’t? The Eurozone, the world’s first geriatric boy band, is on the verge of busting apart. Chimerica, Professor Niall Ferguson’s amusing name for the Chinese-American economic partnership that started around the same time REM did, is going the way of Wham!, with Beijing figuring it’s the George Michael of the relationship and that it’s tired of wossname, the other fellow, who gets equal billing but doesn’t really do anything. The deeper problem may be that this is a double-act with two wossnames.
Still, it’s the end of the world as we know it. Headline from CNBC: “Global Meltdown: Investors Are Dumping Nearly Everything.” I assumed “Nearly Everything” was the cute name of a bankrupt, worthless, planet-saving green-jobs start-up backed by Obama bundlers and funded with a gazillion dollars of stimulus payback. But apparently it’s “Nearly Everything” in the sense of the entire global economy. Headline from The Daily Telegraph of London: “David Cameron: Euro Debt ‘Threatens World Stability.’” But, if you’re not in the general vicinity of the world, you should be OK. Headline from The Wall Street Journal: “World Bank’s Zoellick: World In ‘Danger Zone.’” But, if you’re not in the general vicinity of …no, wait, I did that gag with the last headline.
A woman walks in front of screens showing stocks at the Athens Stock Exchange, in Athens, on Friday, Sept. 23. Moody’s downgraded eight Greek banks Friday, citing their exposure to their government’s bonds and the deteriorating economic situation in the country as it struggles to convince creditors it’s doing enough to get more bailout cash. …
Corner Post on Cain’s speech.
From the very beginning of his speech delivered to the straw poll delegates this afternoon, Herman Cain had the audience wrapped around his finger.
“Wait a minute, whose teleprompters are these? I’m not using these,” he said of the teleprompters near-by, chuckling as the audience exploded into laughter.
He got at least seven standing ovations. His speech was constantly interrupted for applause and cheers. …
Byron York explains how Herman Cain won the Florida straw poll.
… hundreds of GOP delegates who came to Orlando intending to support Perry were having second thoughts. They’d all been in the room for the Fox News-Google debate on Thursday night and were dismayed by Perry’s performance. Actually, more than dismayed — some were insulted by Perry’s accusation that people who don’t support his immigration positions are heartless. Still, they didn’t immediately drop the Texas governor, did not immediately say, “That’s it — I’m outta here.” Rather, in the 40 hours after the end of the debate, their minds were a little more open than they had been before. And most were specifically a little more open to Cain, who impressed them during the debate and had made a number of impromptu appearances around the hotels adjacent to the Orange County Convention Center.
But even on Saturday, Perry might still have recovered some support with an inspiring speech before the voting. Instead, he headed off to Michigan, and it was Cain who delivered a barn-burner that brought at least seven standing ovations from the delegates. Wavering Perry delegates became Cain voters.
“I couldn’t make up my mind,” said Thelma, from Panama City, after the vote. “It was the speech that made the hair stand up on my arms. It wasn’t a tingle down my leg — it was an emotional excitement that this man knows how to get our country out of trouble.” …
Corner Post links to a WaPo story on the spending blitz at Solyndra.
… As it turns out, Solyndra wasn’t just wasting money on fancy gadgets they didn’t need. Once they realized, in the words of billionaire Obama fundraiser and Solyndra investor George Kaiser: “There’s never been more money shoved out of the government’s door in world history, and probably never will be again, than in the last few months and in the next 18 months” (referring to the first stimulus package), the company spent generously on Washington lobbyists in an effort to direct even more federal dollars their way:
“Solyndra’s ability to secure federal backing also made the company eager for more assistance, interviews and records show. Company executives ramped up their Washington lobbying efforts, hiring a former Senate aide to work with the White House and the Energy Department. Within a week of getting a loan guarantee commitment from the Energy Department, Solyndra applied for another guarantee worth $400 million.” …
NY Times article shows the soft underbelly of the governing process.
Solyndra executives, seeking an edge in the competition for federal loan guarantees, began employing Washington lobbyists in 2008. The company stepped up its efforts in early 2009, retaining McBee Strategic Consulting. Five lobbyists employed by the McBee group eventually worked on Solyndra’s behalf, including Michael Sheehy, a former top aide to Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader. Solyndra has paid McBee Consulting $340,000 since 2009.
Steve McBee, the firm’s founder and a former Senate aide, did not return calls seeking comment, but in an April 2009 press release he said that his firm could help technology companies gain a chunk of the projected bonanza of $100 billion in federal money for clean-energy projects.
Mr. McBee said that lobbying was not allowed as part of the process. But in early 2009, the firm filed a disclosure form saying it was retained by Solyndra to lobby on stimulus act spending related to the Energy Department’s loan guarantee program. A critical piece of the stimulus bill removed a requirement that firms like Solyndra pay a substantial up-front fee to cover the risk of a loan, a provision that had slowed approvals of loan guarantees. Once that was removed, loans began to flow and Solyndra was the first to benefit.
Over the next three years, Solyndra retained two other lobbying firms, hired two in-house lobbyists and aggressively pushed for White House meetings to plead its case. Another lobbying and public relations firm with close ties to the White House — Glover Park Group — also worked on Solyndra’s behalf.
In January 2010, four months after the loan was finalized, Solyndra executives and lobbyists pressed Gregory S. Nelson, an aide to Ms. Jarrett, a senior adviser to Mr. Obama, for a meeting to boast about progress at the plant financed with federal money and to discuss a possible second loan, according to White House e-mails. That meeting occurred on Jan. 15, 2010, records show. White House scheduling officials later began talks that led to Mr. Obama’s visit in May.
But signs were increasing in 2010 that the company’s business plan was imploding. The dive in silicon prices, which had started in late 2008, accelerated by the end of 2010. Solyndra sales were growing, but so were its losses. It was forced to slash prices much lower than its costs in order to compete with conventional silicon panel producers. Trade publications began to question whether Solyndra would survive — even its own accountant in March 2010 said it had “substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.”
But Solyndra and its lobbyists continued to provide assurances to the White House and the Energy Department, which still could have stopped the flow of federal money that was being given out for construction of a new factory.
“We have no intention of going out of business,” David Miller, a Solyndra executive, wrote to Mr. Nelson, the White House aide, in July 2010. Mr. Miller, added in May 2011, as the cash crunch had severely worsened, that “we have good market momentum.”
Mr. Nelson wrote back encouraged. “Fantastic to hear that business is doing well,” he said, according to a May 2011 e-mail released by the White House. “Keep up the good work.”
Corner Post describes the disaster that has become NASA.
As scandals pile up at the White House door, another example of amateurish government mismanagement slid under the radar last week: President Obama’s NASA unveiled its new rocket system designed to lift man into space sometime after 2021 with no clear mission or objective.
This is just the latest in a long string of embarrassments for NASA since Administrator Charles Bolden and Deputy Administrator Lori Garver took over.
In January 2010, Bolden labeled NASA an “Earth improvement agency” and said it would essentially scrap manned space exploration and concentrate on “researching and monitoring climate change.” This redefined mission came with additional funding. NASA was going to spend more, and do less.
Then in July 2010, Administrator Bolden announced NASA’s mission as threefold: (1) “re-inspire children”; (2) “expand our international relationships”; and “foremost” (3) “reach out to the Muslim world.” He condescendingly explained that Muslim outreach would help Islamic nations “feel good” about their scientific accomplishments.
In this same interview, Bolden “inspired children” by declaring the United States could never reach beyond low-earth orbit again, as it did alone from 1968–1971, without international help, saying: “We’re not going to go anywhere beyond low earth orbit as a single entity. The United States can’t do it, China can’t do it — no single nation is going to go to a place like Mars alone.”
In March 2011, Russia raised the price of Americans flying on their Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station by more than 20 percent, to roughly $63 million a trip. With no near-term alternative, the United States is in no position to negotiate a better deal for taxpayers. …