It now develops that Solyndra, a maker of solar panels and a major contributor to the Obama presidential campaign, is now bankrupt after being given 535 million dollars in Stimulus money. The question is, where is what is left of that 535 million dollars? How much has been quietly turned back to the Obama presidential campaign? After all, if the company is bankrupt then that means all the money has been spent, doesn’t it? But what if it doesn’t mean that? What if the whole thing was just a way to get a couple million dollars into the Obama war chest? Am I being too cynical? Maybe not. Solyndra execs have just announced they will be taking the fifth amendment when they testify before Congress at the end of the week. But maybe it was just the name. Solyndra. Maybe cylindrical was not in style for solar panels. I asked Thomas Edison, the great inventor, what he thought of cylindrical solar panels.

 

 

The problem is, young man, he said

A cylinder is graceless

I know not who designed it such

Presumably he’s faceless

You will recall my gramophone

Used cylinder recording

Before I realized that flat

Was much much more rewarding

Oh cylinders may have their place

Beer cans, a great invention

Wine bottles, sure, and many other

Things that I could mention

But solar panels need be flat

To catch the sunlight fairly

That’s why the things should not be round

And why they’re built so squarely

So now you know just why the name

Solyndra is a tip-off

The cylinders caught all the cash

And kept it, a big rip-off

And that is how Obama pays

The cost of his believers

Tax dollars fly into the hands

Of bankruptcy receivers

Solyndrical, he whispered low

And vanished with a flicker

And left me with an longish rhyme

To end without a kicker

 

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