Welcome to Bizarro Amerika!

With the collapse of Solyndra generating bad headlines for the Obama administration, White House officials are defending the program that helped fund the solar power company's now-shuttered Silicon Valley factory. Meanwhile, the controversy has provided fodder for a new ad from Americans for Prosperity, a group that works closely with tea party activists.

 If you’re new to the Solyndra story, start with our fact-check of the Americans for Prosperity ad. The ad says that President Barack Obama gave "half a billion in taxpayer money to help his friends at Solyndra, a business the White House knew was on the path to bankruptcy." We rated that Mostly False.  Part of what the ad says is correct, but the charges of political cronyism aren’t supported by the existing evidence.

In defense of the program, White House senior adviser David Plouffe said the loan guarantee program that helped Solyndra "was a program that was supported by President Bush." We rated his statement Mostly True. The program was started under President George W. Bush, but Obama expanded it through the economic stimulus of 2009.

 Finally, Mitt Romney mocked Solyndra as a company  that had "robots that whistled Disney songs." Romney said this was an example of how government doesn’t know how to run a business. We rated his statement Half True. The whistling robots were actually driverless forklifts that played music as a safety feature.

I've been waiting to discuss the Solyndra situation, especially after seeing the lies on TV being spread about it.

What's the truth? Politifact finally checked (http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2011/nov/17/fact-checking-solyndra/):

Move along folks. Nothing to see here...

In an interview following yet another hearing in which Energy Secretary Steven Chu testified about the Department's loan guarantee program, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) appeared to admit that Republicans' ongoing probes of the program -- from which the bankrupt California-based solar company Solyndra and others benefited -- are largely a play to win votes in November.

"Our staff will continue to dig into it and see," Jordan told Environment & Energy Daily. "But what I hope happens is we stop doing these kind of things ... this whole cronyism approach to the marketplace.

"Ultimately, we'll stop it on Election Day, hopefully. And bringing attention to these things helps the voters and citizens of the country make the kind of decision that I hope helps them as they evaluate who they are going to vote for in November."