5 Jobs Created - $2550/hour

And just when it looks like it couldn't get better - guess what? - it does! Solyndra is paying $2550 an hour to defend their failure. I wonder where they got that money?

A California solar-energy company under scrutiny for a $535 million federal loan guarantee has hired McDermott Will & Emery to advise it in a congressional inquiry, court papers say. An application by Solyndra Inc. to employ the law firm as special counsel was filed on Friday in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware. Solyndra, a maker of solar panels, filed for bankruptcy this month, saying it could not compete with foreign manufacturers.Five people with McDermott and their standard hourly rates are listed on the application: William Weld, a former Massachusetts governor and U.S. attorney who is of counsel in New York, at $825; Washington partner Stephen Ryan at $775; Washington partner David Ransom and Silicon Valley partner Eugene Litvinoff, both at $525; and Jon Decker, a senior adviser in Washington, at $425.

Over the Top--or Just Right?

Maybe we are starting to get somewhere?

Short-term Employment

President Obama and Governor Schwarzenegger at the construction site of Solyndra

What does 535 million buy you these days? About a thousand "long-term" jobs, for about twelve months - a whole year! That would be $535,000 spent per job created. And since these "long-term" jobs had expiration dates, that was 44.5 million spent per month. Sounds like a great investment of your money - right? The President thought so...here is part of the speech he gave at the construction site of Solyndra.

Fifteen years ago, the United States produced 40 percent of the world’s solar panels -- 40 percent. That was just 15 years ago. By 2008, our share had fallen to just over 5 percent. I don’t know about you, but I’m not prepared to cede American leadership in this industry, because I’m not prepared to cede America’s leadership in the global economy.
So that’s why we’ve placed a big emphasis on clean energy. It’s the right thing to do for our environment, it’s the right thing to do for our national security, but it’s also the right thing to do for our economy.
And we can see the positive impacts right here at Solyndra. Less than a year ago, we were standing on what was an empty lot. But through the Recovery Act, this company received a loan to expand its operations. This new factory is the result of those loans.
Since the project broke ground last fall, more than 3,000 construction workers have been employed building this plant. Across the country, workers -- (applause) -- across the country, workers in 22 states are manufacturing the supplies for this project. Workers in a dozen states are building the advanced manufacturing equipment that will power this new facility. When it’s completed in a few months, Solyndra expects to hire a thousand workers to manufacture solar panels and sell them across America and around the world. (Applause.)
And this in turn will generate business for companies throughout our country who will create jobs supplying this factory with parts and materials. So there’s a ripple effect. It’s not just localized to this area.

Sounds good? The President usually sounds good - but the realities are often grossly different. Yes, they knew it would be short lived. Read the Credit Committee Recommendations here. 

Waive State's Rights to Create Jobs

So in order to create jobs, we have to take State's Rights away?

(a) Abrogation of State Immunity- A State shall not be immune under the 11th Amendment to the Constitution from a suit brought in a Federal court of competent jurisdiction for a violation of this Act.
(b) Waiver of State Immunity-
(1) IN GENERAL-
(A) WAIVER- A State's receipt or use of Federal financial assistance for any program or activity of a State shall constitute a waiver of sovereign immunity, under the 11th Amendment to the Constitution or otherwise, to a suit brought by an employee or applicant for employment of that program or activity under this Act for a remedy authorized under Section 375(c) of this Act.

I wonder why it takes the waiving of State's Rights to create jobs - or is there something sinister at play here? Na - couldn't be...this must be an innocent progressive clerical error.

Read the bill here.

Is Three Times the Charm?

So have we come down to this - it takes a "jobs bill" to create jobs in America? This is the third try our President has made to "jumpstart" the economy and job growth, and so naturally, the question is simple; what will make this proposal work? After all, it's the same tired and worn out ideas of the first two proposals. Does raising taxes and spending more money on infrastructure sound familiar? Maybe the President thinks that if he tries the same trick enough times, something will change for the better.

Lets ask a simple question. Who is the largest employer in America? Depending on which definition you agree with, small business employs 50 - 83% of Americans. Thirty percentage points is a large discrepancy in numbers, yes, but in an effort to keep this simple enough for the President to grasp, let's frame this issue another way. More than half of America goes to work for employers that really do have to preform in the marketplace. In other words, if their small business goes bankrupt, they lose everything both corporately and personally. If their business goes great, they stand to gain a reward for taking on the risk associated with being "not to big to fail."

With the President having been as caustic to small business as he has been with his rhetoric, regulation, and "reforms," who in their right mind wants to take on more risk in the Obama economy? The risk of losing it all is tremendous. The safest approach is to sit on what you have until "regime uncertainty" goes away.

Until those who have risked everything can be confident that the President is on their side, don't expect the unemployment to drop to Bush-era levels. It doesn't matter how much "mo-jo" the President tries to muster as he saunters onto the stage for the third time, three times will not be his charm.

Recovery Anyone?

FAA loses track of 119,000 aircraft...yep, they did!

The government (FAA) can't seem to secure data on who owns what plane and what the registration numbers are. Of course this means that as a result, we don't know whether the sale/purchase of these planes went to law abiding people or criminals. We don't even know if the flight plans these planes file are legitimate!

But, don't worry, our government (TSA) has the best porno scanning devices in the world, taking pictures of us passengers - which they say will never be "lost." Really? O, did I forget to mention the TSA's enhanced groping procedures, of everyone from granny to grade schoolers, that will surely catch the terrorists, right? Meanwhile, the government can't tell who is flying what plane?

Is it me, or is there something wrong with this picture? The government (TSA) can grope and photo us, but they (FAA) don't know who is flying what plane?