The coincidences are now coming at us at a dizzying pace

Who would ever have guessed that newly bankrupt Solyndra – former exhibit A for green jobs and government/private sector partnering, as well as being a beneficiary of over half a billion dollars in government-guaranteed loans, which currently pose a potential actual price tag for taxpayers of $390 million – would have links to a nest of Obama fundraisers?

Someone once said that the problem with South America was that you had capitalists but no capitalism. Just another indication, I suppose, that we are deteriorating into the biggest, costliest banana republic of all time. But even without the crony capitalism, an activist government poses a huge threat to economic freedom and stability. I see it myself, every day: high-level political appointees who are eager to ratchet up government involvement and risky taxpayer-funded subsidies even without any kind of quid pro quo, for purely ideological reasons. Remember: it’s who they are; it’s what they do.

Update: Much more on the details of the palm-greasing by C.J. Ciaramella at the Daily Caller, plus the added bonus of a completely dumbass response by a Department of Energy flunky:

“The project that we supported succeeded,” a spokesman for the Department of Energy told The New York Times. “The facility was producing the product it said it would produce, and consumers were buying the product,” he said. “The company struggled because the market has changed dramatically.”

I see. The facility was producing the product, and people were buying it. Yet, for some mysterious reason – sabotage by employees of coal-fired energy companies? Sunspots? El Niño? - the company still never showed a profit, is now bankrupt and will probably default on its debt. Dude, I don’t think “success” means what you think it means.