Fisker: we scarcely knew ye

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Of all the Department of Energy's green loan debacles and there have been many, Fisker stands above even the Solyndra disaster for a combination of audacity and incompetence.

(For previous posts regarding Fisker, please go here)

To quickly recap: Fisker Automotive was to build electric hybrids cars and was approved for $529 million in loan guarantees (more than they requested) from the Department of Energy to do so. Originally, the two models of cars they were to build were going to be in the $50,000-$60,000 range. In short order, that price escalated upwards to the $110,000 range for it's high-end model thus going from hybrid to luxury hybrid.

The cars were to be assembled at a plant in Delaware as part of the justification for this massive loan was that it would create good paying green manufacturing jobs here in the U.S. The only problem was that the Delaware plant never produced a single car, rather the assembly operations had been relocated to... Finland.

If you were thinking that perhaps a stipulation of the loan would be that our tax dollars wouldn't go to pay the salaries of Paavo, Heikki and the rest of the boys over there, you and we are in the same company.


After falling drastically short of production and sales goals (last year, they sold only 900 out of the 48,000 market-wide plug-ins), the cars plagued by mechanical, electrical and software problems and the failure of A123 batteries (yet, another DOE green loan #fail) last year was a harbinger of doom for Fisker and its aptly-named luxury model "Karma".

And on Monday, there was even more bad news for the car company that has not produced a car since last August.


From the New York Times:

The all-but-closed company skipped a large loan payment that was due on Monday, leading the federal government to take the unusually aggressive step of seizing $21 million from the company's cash reserves to begin recouping the $192 million in taxpayer dollars spent on the company's flawed strategy.

Which means, of course, Fisker is still on the hook to U.S. taxpayers to the tune of $171 million.


The fall-out from this extends beyond merely financial as green technology and our wisdom of taxpayer subsidies for green technology takes a P.R. hit:

Some environmental activists worry about the potential ramifications of a Fisker bankruptcy.

"We can't get to where we need to be in electric vehicles without government help," said Dan Becker, head of the Safe Climate Campaign, an advocacy group in Washington.

Mr. Becker, good sir, if $192 million committed out of $529 million promised isn't considered "help", we scarcely know what is and Fisker still managed to bollox things up.



And if the Obama administration has committed tax-payer money to other, more established auto-manufacturers like Ford and Toyota for their EVs without such disastrous results what is the explanation for what happened with Fisker?

From CBS News:

The Obama administration was warned as early as 2010 that electric car maker Fisker Automotive Inc. was not meeting milestones set up for a half-billion dollar government loan, nearly a year before U.S. officials froze the financing after questions were raised about the company's statements, newly released documents show.

An Energy Department official said in a June 2010 email that Fisker's bid to draw on the federal loan may be jeopardized for failure to meet goals established by the Energy Department.

Fisker continued to receive money until June 2011, when the Energy Department halted further funding. The agency did so after Fisker presented new information that called into question whether key milestones - including launch of the company's signature, $100,000 Karma hybrid - had been achieved, according to a credit report prepared by the Energy Department.

The December 2011 credit report said "DOE staff asked questions about the delays" in the launch of the Karma "and received varied and incomplete explanations," leading to the suspension of the loan.

Recall that the Fisker loan was approved in mid-2009 so it only took a year for the warning flags to go up. One year.

If the warning flags were going up that early, it would suggest perhaps that exercising some due diligence at the front end would've revealed that the loan should not have been made in the first place. Just sayin'.


As it stands, and we are being polite, what this represents is a dereliction of duty by Team O in the stewardship of the taxpayers' scratch. There's really no other way to look at it and yet there will be no repercussions for this willful negligence.

Committing tax-payer money to not-yet-market-ready technology is a losing proposition and committing the same to a start-up using that same technology that can't find sufficient private backing is a guaranteed losing proposition.

Unfortunately, Team O won't learn this lesson. The pursuit of currently suspect green technology subsidized by your money is an article of faith embedded in their collectivist religion and for the smartest kids in the classroom picking winners and losers with respect to directing the economy and "creating" jobs is a divine rite not to be left to the whims of market realities. That we should be so fortunate to be blessed by their benevolence and wisdom.




* Perhaps the quintessential image of the Karma. Being towed off the track after breaking down shortly into Consumer Reports test drive of the car. On the bed of that truck, the Karma achieves the greenie dream of a zero emissions vehicle lumbering down the highway at 50 mph.

Yet another green technology (overseas) boondoggle

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On the bright side of things, we guess we should be thankful that they have not yet gone out of business like Solyndra or are massively in debt like SunPower.

With the approval of the Obama administration, an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work.

Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department's $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the job of assembling the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car has been outsourced to Finland.

"There was no contract manufacturer in the U.S. that could actually produce our vehicle," the car company's founder and namesake told ABC News. "They don't exist here."

This really is old news as this loan to Fisker and the fact the cars would be built over in Finland was reported out on these very pages over two years ago..


And political connections, you ask? But, of course:

The loan to Fisker is part of a $1 billion bet the Energy Department has made in two politically connected California-based electric carmakers producing sporty -- and pricey -- cutting-edge autos. Fisker Automotive, backed by a powerhouse venture capital firm whose partners include former Vice President Al Gore, predicts it will eventually be churning out tens of thousands of electric sports sedans at the shuttered GM factory it bought in Delaware. And Tesla Motors, whose prime backers include PayPal mogul Elon Musk and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, says it will do the same in a massive facility tooling up in Silicon Valley.

Tens of thousands of luxury sedans and mass-produced sedans at... $97,000 and $57,400 a copy? Let us know how that works out.


And proving just how affordable green technology is becoming, the reported prices for those cars two years ago was $89,000 and $40,000, respectively.

And here's what was said with respect to the prices of the cars at the time (link above):

The Karma will target an exclusive audience -- Gore was one of the first to sign up for one. Mr. Fisker says all new technology starts out being expensive. He pointed to flat-screen televisions that once started at $25,000 but are now affordable to the mass market.

And our response:

It’s not entirely clear to us that $40,000/unit falls under the mass audience category but who the hell cares about the masses when one of the main beneficiaries of your largesse has dutifully signed up to have that thing sit in his driveway?

Think about it: billions upon billions of dollars in subsidies and the prices are going in the wrong direction unlike other areas of the tech sector (TVs and cell/smart phones) where no subsidies were received and real skin was in the game and the market determined the winners and losers.

Federally-subsidized green technology: Rising consumer prices, shipping jobs out of country and hooking up your buds... What's not to like about that?




* The Karma, Fisker's luxury sedan at the San Diego Auto Show in December of 2009. Yep, Karma's a bitch.

Tales from Green Nation

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Fisker: the Solyndra with wheels



Fisker had secured $192 million in tax-payer dollars to build hybrid sedans here in Delaware Finland at $50,000-$60,000 a copy. Unfortunately, no one wants hybrids that cheap, so Fisker went from manufacturing high-end sedans to truly luxury sedans at $110,000 per model.


Given this outstanding business model it should come as no surprise that in 2012 Fisker sold an estimated 900 cars as the Feds moved in to seize assets in this all but closed company.


But there is some good news. The feds have found a buyer. The bad news is that the tax-payer will once again take a bath on yet again another failed DOE green loan venture whose only apparent intent was to line the pockets of this administration’s politically connected.


(Previous posts on this epic boondoggle upon which we have blogged extensively can be found here)



From The Daily Caller:

The Energy Department has sold off its $192 million loan guarantee to Fisker Automotive to Chinese billionaire Richard Li for $25 million — the biggest taxpayer loss on a green loan since the failure of Solyndra.

The Energy Department will announce the “selling of the promissory note” to Hybrid Tech, which is owned by Chinese billionaire Richard Li, according to sources familiar with the sale. The DOE sold the loan to Li for $25 million after lending the financially troubled green automaker a total of $192 million since 2009.

A Chinese billionaire? We were previously unaware that Communists allowed such a species to exist. We’re sure there is nothing fishy going on there.


We’re not opposed to green energy. What we're opposed to is throwing away $167 million at a cronyisitc green scheme that never had a chance of surviving.


Mr. President, we know you will never get the clue that picking winners and losers is no way to run an economy so we’ll just have to wait for term limits to effectively achieve the same goal.





* Perhaps the quintessential image of the Fisker Karma: Being towed off the track after breaking down shortly into Consumer Reports test drive of the car. On the bed of that truck, the Karma achieves the greenie dream of a zero emissions vehicle lumbering down the highway on a flatbed at 50 mph.



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Cars from the masses for the masses?

(Scheduled post... such are the perils of being on the road and posting on something that has been covered elsewhere. Oh, well. Enjoy.)

A tiny car company backed by former Vice President Al Gore has just gotten a $529 million U.S. government loan to help build a hybrid sports car in Finland that will sell for about $89,000.

The award this week to California startup Fisker Automotive Inc. follows a $465 million government loan to Tesla Motors Inc., purveyors of a $109,000 British-built electric Roadster. Tesla is a California startup focusing on all-electric vehicles, with a number of celebrity endorsements that is backed by investors that have contributed to Democratic campaigns.

The awards to Fisker and Tesla have prompted concern from companies that have had their bids for loans rejected, and criticism from groups that question why vehicles aimed at the wealthiest customers are getting loans subsidized by taxpayers.

We’re not really sure what all the yapping would be about. Hasn’t the Environmental-Industrial complex pretty much established their bona fides in spending your money on the politically-favored/connected on technology that is not yet ready for prime-market time all for the benefit of the well-heeled’s self-esteem?

Matt Rogers, who oversees the department's loan programs as a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, said Fisker was awarded the loan after a "detailed technical review" that concluded the company could eventually deliver a highly fuel-efficient hybrid car to a mass audience. Fisker said most of its DOE loan will be used to finance U.S. production of a $40,000 family sedan that has yet to be designed.

It’s not entirely clear to us that $40,000/unit falls under the mass audience category but who the hell cares about the masses when one of the main beneficiaries of your largesse has dutifully signed up.

The Karma will target an exclusive audience -- Gore was one of the first to sign up for one. Mr. Fisker says all new technology starts out being expensive. He pointed to flat-screen televisions that once started at $25,000 but are now affordable to the mass market.

Way to dig deep, Al! And what are these flat-screens they speak of? Its damn-near miraculous that these T.V.s have dropped in price by order of magnitude in just the 10 or so years since they have been commercially available. Seriously, how was that possible?

Read more about the joys of crony subsidization, picking winners and losers and the self-congratulatory joys of Big Green, here.

More great moments in the history of crony capitalism

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Who's up for a Fisker update?

You all remember Fisker, right? The Al Gore-backed recipients of a $529 million loan guarantee from the federal government in order to build $100,000 electric sedans in Finland. Let us know when this stops looking like a business model in which to poor that amount of tax-payer money because it just keeps getting better.

It would appear that there really is nothing greener than a car that doesn't run.

Here's the test drive report from Consumer Reports:

Our Fisker Karma cost us $107,850. It is super sleek, high-tech—and now it’s broken.

We have owned our car for just a few days; it has less than 200 miles on its odometer. While doing speedometer calibration runs on our test track (a procedure we do for every test car before putting it in service by driving the car at a constant 65 mph between two measured points), the dashboard flashed a message and sounded a “bing“ showing a major fault. Our technician got the car off the track and put it into Park to go through the owner’s manual to interpret the warning. At that point, the transmission went into Neutral and wouldn’t engage any gear through its electronic shifter except Park and Neutral.

We let the car sit for about an hour and restarted it. We could now engage Drive and the same error message disappeared. After moving it only a few feet the error message reappeared and when we tried to engage Reverse the transmission went straight to Park and again no motion gear could be engaged. After calling the dealer, which is about 100 miles away, they promptly sent a flatbed tow truck to haul away the disabled Fisker.

We buy about 80 cars a year and this is the first time in memory that we have had a car that is undriveable before it has finished our check-in process.

(italics, ours)


Because nothing says boondoggle like not even test driving your own vehicle before handing it over for a third-party assessment.


Think about it: billions upon billions of dollars in green technology subsidies and the prices are going in the wrong direction and, in this case, for products that don't even work unlike other areas of the tech sector (computers, TVs and smart phones) where no subsidies were received and real skin was in the game and the market determined the winners and losers.




* As an unintended safety feature, Karma drivers will enjoy the increased visibility.

Fisker: it doesn't really have to make any sense...

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... as long as you can feel good about yourself.



Sure, we'll get yet another aspect of the Solyndra scandal soon here but we couldn't turn out the lights this evening without commenting on this.

You all remember Fisker, right? The American-owned car company that we, as in the U.S. tax-payers, via the Department of Energy's green loan program, lent $529 million to build $97,000 and $57,000 a copy electric cars... in Finland.

At 97 large for their high-performance sedan, there really can be no doubt that the purchase of this vehicle is merele an exercise in green vanity and smugness. And to put to rest any doubt you may have towards our contention, please bare in mind that one of the package options for the Fisker is, wait for it....

... EcoChic

The most advanced sustainable trim package available featuring 100% Recyclable EcoSuede interior material, and Certified Rescued Wood trim from California fires.

Let that settle in for a moment: they're sending that burnt wood all the way over to Finland to be inlaid to the dashboard. Feeling better about that $529 million already, aren't you?

You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried.

What we've been Tweeting

So, the President got himself into a little hot water this past week while he was out here in California when he called California's Attorney General Kamala Harris the "best looking" AG. She is indeed a good-looking woman and we don't feel the President did anything necessarily wrong here. But we all know the drill, don't we?: if we are we are going to be held to politically correct, modern liberal standards with respect how it is we address and refer to women then we sure as hell are going to hold others to it as well.


And this isn't the first, nor even second or third time there has been some borderline sexist-appearing improprieties with this President and his administration.

freebeacon.com/sexist-in-chie…Face it, lib ladies, your hero is a bit of a sexist #creeper.

— Dean R. Riehm (@deanriehm) April 5, 2013

But who knows? Maybe this objectification of a high-ranking state official may cause a sea change in people's attitudes. It won't be the first time the President has led the way in changing people's opinion on things.

abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?sect…Like #drones and #SSM, can we assume how it is that #Obama addresses women in the workplace is evolving?#creeper

— Dean R. Riehm (@deanriehm) April 5, 2013

Nope. The politically correct-thinking crowd won the day as the President apologized for a justifiable compliment to a woman.

abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?sect…What makes one look like a bigger horse's ass than saying a woman is "best looking..."?Apologizing for it.

— Dean R. Riehm (@deanriehm) April 5, 2013

And here is another heart-warming story involving our country's public education system and specifically to teachers bullying a young conservative student:

radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/to…Wisconsin public schools:making the case for school choice.

— Dean R. Riehm (@deanriehm) April 5, 2013

radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/to…WI teachers wouldn't bully gay, atheist or Muslim students and rightly so but conservatives r apparently fair game.

— Dean R. Riehm (@deanriehm) April 5, 2013

radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/to…"I took a stand because it's not about me."Right on, kid.

— Dean R. Riehm (@deanriehm) April 5, 2013

We're growing weary of the "isolated incident" defense as a) the high schooler in question, Benji Backer, has been repeatedly harrassed and bullied by multiple faculty members at this school and b) there is very much a culture, it appears, in our schools that is openly and vigorously hostile to anti-statist thinking.

The thin pro-union veneer during the Wisconsin public-employee pension reform debate that was scratched off revealing a virulent and often un-hinged anti-capitalist, class warfare mentality is evidence of this.






And like foreign aid to folks like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, there are othere things that will not be effected by sequester cuts as our buddy JD points out:

Federal kickbacks to be raised 5% across the board effective immediately.

— JD (@Psudrozz) April 4, 2013

Master satirist/humoruist Iowahawk gets in a dig at the food-stamps-are-an-economic-stimulus crowd:

Keep holy the Sacred Multiplier RT @exjon Keynesians are the new flat-earthers.

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) April 2, 2013

Fisker is about to go belly-up? Of course, Fisker is about to go belly-up:

m.us.wsj.com/articles/a/SB1…U.S. tax-payer subsidized EV firm that builds it's $100K cars in Finland going bankrupt.#ThisIsMyShockFace

— Dean R. Riehm (@deanriehm) April 5, 2013

m.us.wsj.com/articles/a/SB1…Another slow clap for the economic illiterates in the #Obama administration.#Fisker#A123

— Dean R. Riehm (@deanriehm) April 5, 2013

And the hits just keep coming for the Department of Energy's green loan program.

freebeacon.com/the-solar-pane…Another day, another corrupt, cronyistic #DOE loan #FAIL

— Dean R. Riehm (@deanriehm) April 5, 2013

We used to follow baseball a lot more closely when we were younger and football (see: NFL) had not yet become a 12-month sport over which we could obssess. Having said that, there is a rhythm to things in life and it's good to see baseball back this week and it's also good to see MLB dropped the ridiculous idea of having two West Coast teams open up in Japan for a two game set a full week and a half before the rest of the teams' openers on the first Monday in April as happened last year.

@corey0brien@mad_maxamillionGlad to see #MLB has resorted to NOT making hash of Opening Day/Fortnight like they did last year.

— Dean R. Riehm (@deanriehm) April 1, 2013

Another RT for Iowahawk.

"Go to college" is to education what "swallow things" is to nutrition.

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) April 1, 2013

So true. So true. Yes, education is important but so is examining our national obsession with going to college, particularly, when going to college means "exploring", "finding yourself", "celebrating diversity" and evidently running up $80,000 in student loan debt with a sociology degree that lands you a plumb unpaid internship after 5 years at good ol' State U.

Look at it this way: we can never get ahold of our plumber as dude always seems to be in Hawai'i or Acupulco with his third wife. College isn't for everybody. Deal with it.






Plenty of people were pretty chapped that Google's home page decided to honor Cesar Chavez instead of the Son of God last Sunday. Peeps, be careful what you ask for...

twitchy.com/2013/03/31/goo…To look on the bright side of things:Do #Christians really want #Google interpreting #Easter for them?

— Dean R. Riehm (@deanriehm) March 31, 2013

The White House and its water-carriers in the press were furiously spinning Friday's horrible jobs news.

hotair.com/archives/2013/…Faith-based community: Unemployment (7.6) at lowest in 4 yrs. Reality-based comm: labor part. @ lowest since '78.

— Dean R. Riehm (@deanriehm) April 5, 2013

We realize there is politics to be played with this stuff but this is no longer politics rather, what planet are these people from?





OK, gang, that's it for now. We'll catch up with you later. Probably related to some good news related for some monks down in Louisiana.

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Do you have to know the secret handshake to get into this club?

Here's Ray Lane, the Chairman of Fisker, the electric car manufacturer that recieved a $529 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy to build its cars in Finland praising the Obama administration's use of tax dollars in private investment and using, wait for it... Solyndra as proof of its success in an interview back in March of 2009.

"Policy - government/private capital cooperation is actually beginning to work."


"It would be silly to think we could start these car companies and build them to full deployment with all the capital required without the help of the government in policy decisions to support U.S. jobs actually manufacturing cars in the United States."

In a sense, Lane is right. It sure would be silly to think Fisker was going to be building cars, their two main models costing $97,000 and $57,400 a piece, without being subsidized because what private investor in their right mind is going to sink his money into that?

Unfortunately, those subsidies are your tax dollars serving to prop up a technology and a business model that is not market-ready. Who is going to buy these cars except super-rich, smug limo-liberals?

And it's terrific they all seem to know each other. As Lane suggests, this crony capitalism thing is pretty damn peachy but unfortunately what winds up happening is that billions and billions of dollars are flushed down a black hole of the politically-connected and cock-a-mamie car companies building a product overseas that no one can afford.

If the technology and business model were market-ready then government subsidies would not be needed, as it stands then, when the government picks winners and losers, they invariably choose the losers.

Saturday at the auto show

Saturday we spun on down to the San Diego Auto Show which was being held at the convention center. With the opportunity to check out some cool wheels we were also very interested to see how our tax dollars were being spent, particularly at the General Motors displays.

Long story short, heavy on the Camaro, Corvette and their SUVs.

Here’s a nice look at the Camaro at one of GM’s central displays.




And here’s the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid.

You know, for $54,000, we better be getting more that 22 highway and 21 city.
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It gets better.

For a mere $59,000, you can roll off the lot in an ethanol-burning Tahoe getting 21 highway and 15 in the city.


And while we’re on a green theme, here’s the Fisker, available in the fall of this year. Fisker you will recall is an automotive company backed by Al Gore which received a $529 million U.S. government loan to manufacture in Finland this little hybrid gem upon which you are affixing your gaze.

Copy price: $89,000.

Hey, no one said going green was going to be cheap. Or ethical. Or sensical.






Jeep had a cool little obstacle course set up.





The man on the left is off-road legend and El Cajon native, Ivan “Iron Man” Stewart. The guy just emanates a rugged, western dudesmanship. People young and old alike were coming up to Stewart, chatting, taking pictures with him and getting his autograph.

Constitutional republics are, like, hard: the O > W edition

This is a re-post of a running series/theme we started around two years ago and which seems quite timely given the date on the calendar. Please feel free to share with your Bush-hating and/or undecided friends.



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You've waited six long months for it, but we've finally got around to our running post that either makes Bush-hating liberals squirm or perhaps develop a severe case of amnesia regarding what they were saying about the man from about 2003 to the very early part of 2009.



First, however, a totally related Fast and Furious update:

Prior to the miserable hack that runs the Justice Department getting a Congressional Oversight committee contempt charge leveled at him (House floor vote coming next week) for stonewalling on the upper reaches of the Justice Department's knowledge and involvement in Fast and Furious, the federal government's (contrary to what the article below says) highly successful gun-running scheme, he was granted Executive Privilege from his BFF, the President (perhaps a little pay-back for the home-work assignment Holder was tasked after the President said it would be unprecedented for the Supreme Court to strike down a law that was on the books).


From the NY Times (whose article at the link may constitute more column-inches on F&F than all other articles they published on the same subject combined):

Republicans on the House oversight committee voted on Wednesday to recommend holding Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress in a dispute over internal Justice Department documents related to the botched gun trafficking operation known as “Fast and Furious.”

The 23-to-17 vote, which fell along party lines, came after President Obama invoked executive privilege to withhold the documents and communications among Justice Department officials last year as they grappled with the Congressional investigation into the case. As part of the operation, weapons bought in the United States were allowed to reach a Mexican drug cartel in an effort to build a bigger case.

It was the first time that Mr. Obama had asserted the privilege since taking office, and it sharpened the long-festering dispute between Mr. Holder and Representative Darrell Issa, Republican of California, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Democrats called for the panel to hold off voting on the contempt citation during an often acrimonious partisan debate, but Republicans pressed forward with it.

Now take a wild guess who wasn't too keen on Executive Privlege just a short 5 years ago? If you guessed the back-bench senator from the Land of Lincoln, take a seat at the head of the class.





You may have thought that the perfectly legal firing of political appointees to be somewhat unseemly but it's not even in the same ballpark when it comes to 2 dead federal agents, hundreds of dead Mexican officials and innocent civilians and scads of guns that are still un-accounted for.

Exit question before the roll call: If, as Holder has asserted, the President had no knowledge of Fast and Furious, how then does Executive Privilege apply?



And now, the O > W electric boogaloo (newbies set off by asteriks):

Closing Keeping open Gitmo.


Ending Formalizing the indefinite detention of suspected terrorists.


Ending Maintaining military tribunals.


Not letting unemployment get above 8 10.5 percent with a $800 billion stimulus package.


Discontinuing Continuing other Bush-era policies like rendition, Project Gunrunner and TARP.


Ending Throwing into warp drive the politicization of the Justice Department under the leadership of the biggest hack in the administration.


Engineering a bankruptcy cramdown of domestic auto companies that will most likely cost the U.S. tax-payers tens of billions of dollars.


Interpreting the Patriot Act to collect information on people via mobile phone geolocating


A crony capitalism that is disguised as a green jobs program.

Including Fisker, SunPower and Beacon Hill

Engaging in an act of war against a country that posed no threat whatsoever to the U.S. with without the consent of Congress.


Swift Painfully slow response to national disasters.


Ending Maintaining the practice of signing statements.


Subjecting our national security to an expensive green technology boondoggle that doubles down on the cronyism.


For you visual types, how about a federal government - Goldman Sachs Venn diagram? (thanks, W.C. )

Signing off on predator drone strikes for the ostensible purpose of assassinating a foreign head of state. And then doing so.


Using executive orders and administrative actions and generally subverting the role of Congress in order to enact his agenda.


Shutting down Operating a seeming revolving door between the White House and Wall Street and K Street.


Signing legislation that would allow the military to indefinitely detain terror suspects, including American citizens arrested in the United States, without charge. Got 4th amendment? Not anymore, you don't.


Pushing through health care reform legislation in the sleaziest, most cynical, un-hopenchangey and business-as-usual manner possible.


Authorizing a program to assassinate American civilians.


Actually authorizing a drone strike hit that killed American-born Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan (from this point forward, we never... never want to hear a peep about water-boarding)


And adopting another Bush-like tendency in combating the war on terror: refusing to provide the legal justification for the killing of U.S. citizens.

*Forcing Catholic institutions to violate their faith conscience by not only mandating them to provide coverage for contraceptives but making it completely free of charge as well.*



*End-running Congress in order to make (totally not) in-recess appointments to the National Labor Review Board.*



*End-running Congress to install immigration policy that countermands the laws that are on the books after claiming just a few months ago that he could not do so because, correctly, that's not how our system works.*

Our system of checks and balances and separation of powers was set up this way to prevent acts of tyranny, a lesson this part-time Constitutional law lecturer didn't forget - he just never believed it in the first place.

Please let us know if there is anything about the above that does not make him absolutely power-mad and Bush a complete rank amateur in that department by comparison.

The more we think about it, the more we think this Bush/Obama mash-up does an extreme disservice to President Bush.





Share it. Share it, brothers and sisters with friends, family and particularly all those alleged Bush-hating Obama supporters to see who it is are the hypocrites in your life. Maybe they aren't hypocrites, however. Maybe they were just jealous that all that Costitution-shredding and amassing of executive power wasn't being done by their guy. Well, they're getting back in spades, now.


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The gift that keeps on giving

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The President is still getting rightfully hammered* for his inane, idiotic and uninformed statement regarding small businesses. In case you've been living under a rock or are left-leaning and were unaware of the remarks and the fact that the President is an economic illiterate, here is what he told a campaign stop crowd in Roanoke, Va., last week.

There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me -- because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t -- look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.)

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

The left's counter to the pointed criticism of not just the words but the overarching world view the President holds towards markets, free enterprise and capitalism that would produce those words is basically: Well, there goes those right-wing loons again, trashing the government and not wanting to pay any taxes for basic services such as roads, schools and national defense (that the government would limit themselves to that basic model).

B-Daddy of the Liberator Today provided a fine counter to the left's counter:

Where to start? This is rich, of course, coming from a guy who didn't build a thing, who didn't even get decent grades in college for all we know. But the outrage is really about his tone of arrogance in telling us that unless we support his big fat welfare state, we are being ungrateful to our third grade teacher. Entrepreneurs know who helped them and they already said thanks. And all of us know that some government is necessary. We know that government establishing a rule of law, including contract law, and preventing corruption are key features that allow business to succeed. We wouldn't mind paying for government that was limited, small and worked; a government that stayed within its constitutional boundaries and its means.

We wouldn't mind paying taxes if they actually built roads and dams. But as Mark Steyn reports, Obama's Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior has promised that "You will never see another federal dam." Ever.

We wouldn't mind paying taxes if they weren't squandered on green energy projects that lined the pockets of the President's campaign donors.

We wouldn't mind paying taxes if they weren't used to enable Mexican drug lords to gun down U.S. agents.

We wouldn't mind paying taxes if they didn't support an increasingly corrupt welfare state.

We wouldn't mind paying taxes if the government schools actually educated our kids.

We wouldn't mind paying taxes if the President supported the rule of law and didn't pass laws through executive order.

We wouldn't mind paying taxes if the military wasn't used as social experiment in diversity and biofuels.

We wouldn't mind paying taxes if state workers didn't have better salaries, benefits, pensions and job security than the average taxpayer.

We wouldn't mind paying taxes if the President wasn't so arrogant about demanding that we should pay more.

Well said, we think you would agree.

Solyndra, Beacon Power, A123 batteries, Fisker... they all didn't do it on their own, either. They had the help of hundreds of millions of tax dollars to assist them in their failings.

The Department of Energy's green energy loan program is simply a manifestation of the President's comments from last Friday. If success is defined by your relationship to the government, then, of course, the cronyistic, Peronist loan program makes perfect sense.


*It's now been a full 7 days and this thing still has legs. Good. It provides a stark contrast between a statist, confiscatory government-centric economy and a individual based one where innovation and hard work are rewarded. Guess which one tells the better (campaign) story?

The average number of bumper stickers on a Prius is insufficient in communicating the smugness we feel right now

Electric cars by the numbers:

1,000,000: the federal government’s goal of number of electric cars on the road by 2015.

50,000: the number of electric cars sold in the U.S. in 2012.

$100,000: the price of the Fisker of which you are subsidizing the production… in Finland.

30,000: the number of pounds of carbon-dioxide emissions from the production of an electric car.

14,000: that number for a conventional car.

A big chunk of that 30,000 lbs. comes from the production of the batteries which require lithium-ion of which the Chi-comms have a virtual corner on the market and whom have never been confused with the Sierra Club in their extraction of the rare earths required for most green energy applications.

Oh, and…

$10,000: the replacement price tag for a new car battery.

It is duly noted that we haven’t yet figured out how to safely dispose of the lithium-ion in the battery.




80,000: the number of miles needed for an electric car to be driven to break even with the amount of carbon-dioxide that is emitted in the production of said electric car.

Slim and none: the chances your electric car’s odometer will see 80,000 miles because…

73: the range in miles per charge for a Nissan Leaf and…

6: average mph for an extended road trip owing to extensive battery charging time and…

55: the range in miles per charge of that Leaf after 5 years.

Bottom line: you better be doing a hell of a lot of senseless and logistically ill-conceived running of errands around town in order to make your electric car pay off from an environmental standpoint.




And in case anyone forgot:

$7,500: the amount you are subsidizing others’ efforts to feel morally superior by purchasing an electric car.

$5.5 billion: the amount we are giving in federal grants and loans to an industry that builds $100,000 vehicles.

We feel the need to go on the record as saying we are not opposed to green energy, per se. However, the manner in which it currently is pursued as a hodge-podge of tax-payer supported crony capitalism via methodologies and industry practices that are the antithesis of "green" makes us strident opponents.


Call us back when we stop giving billions to wealthy politically-connected "investors" and when green technology starts making long-term sense both financially and environmentally because, right now, it's not even close.

Constitutional republics are, like, hard

This is a re-post of a running series/theme we started around two years ago and which seems quite timely given the date on the calendar. Please feel free to share with your Bush-hating and/or undecided friends.



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You've waited six long months for it, but we've finally got around to our running post that either makes Bush-hating liberals squirm or perhaps develop a severe case of amnesia regarding what they were saying about the man from about 2003 to the very early part of 2009.



First, however, a totally related Fast and Furious update:

Prior to the miserable hack that runs the Justice Department getting a Congressional Oversight committee contempt charge leveled at him (House floor vote coming next week) for stonewalling on the upper reaches of the Justice Department's knowledge and involvement in Fast and Furious, the federal government's (contrary to what the article below says) highly successful gun-running scheme, he was granted Executive Privilege from his BFF, the President (perhaps a little pay-back for the home-work assignment Holder was tasked after the President said it would be unprecedented for the Supreme Court to strike down a law that was on the books).


From the NY Times (whose article at the link may constitute more column-inches on F&F than all other articles they published on the same subject combined):

Republicans on the House oversight committee voted on Wednesday to recommend holding Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress in a dispute over internal Justice Department documents related to the botched gun trafficking operation known as “Fast and Furious.”

The 23-to-17 vote, which fell along party lines, came after President Obama invoked executive privilege to withhold the documents and communications among Justice Department officials last year as they grappled with the Congressional investigation into the case. As part of the operation, weapons bought in the United States were allowed to reach a Mexican drug cartel in an effort to build a bigger case.

It was the first time that Mr. Obama had asserted the privilege since taking office, and it sharpened the long-festering dispute between Mr. Holder and Representative Darrell Issa, Republican of California, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Democrats called for the panel to hold off voting on the contempt citation during an often acrimonious partisan debate, but Republicans pressed forward with it.

Now take a wild guess who wasn't too keen on Executive Privlege just a short 5 years ago? If you guessed the back-bench senator from the Land of Lincoln, take a seat at the head of the class.





You may have thought that the perfectly legal firing of political appointees to be somewhat unseemly but it's not even in the same ballpark when it comes to 2 dead federal agents, hundreds of dead Mexican officials and innocent civilians and scads of guns that are still un-accounted for.

Exit question before the roll call: If, as Holder has asserted, the President had no knowledge of Fast and Furious, how then does Executive Privilege apply?



And now, the O > W electric boogaloo (newbies set off by asteriks):

Closing Keeping open Gitmo.


Ending Formalizing the indefinite detention of suspected terrorists.


Ending Maintaining military tribunals.


Not letting unemployment get above 8 10.5 percent with a $800 billion stimulus package.


Discontinuing Continuing other Bush-era policies like rendition, Project Gunrunner and TARP.


Ending Throwing into warp drive the politicization of the Justice Department under the leadership of the biggest hack in the administration.


Engineering a bankruptcy cramdown of domestic auto companies that will most likely cost the U.S. tax-payers tens of billions of dollars.


Interpreting the Patriot Act to collect information on people via mobile phone geolocating


A crony capitalism that is disguised as a green jobs program.

Including Fisker, SunPower and Beacon Hill

Engaging in an act of war against a country that posed no threat whatsoever to the U.S. with without the consent of Congress.


Swift Painfully slow response to national disasters.


Ending Maintaining the practice of signing statements.


Subjecting our national security to an expensive green technology boondoggle that doubles down on the cronyism.


For you visual types, how about a federal government - Goldman Sachs Venn diagram? (thanks, W.C. )

Signing off on predator drone strikes for the ostensible purpose of assassinating a foreign head of state. And then doing so.


Using executive orders and administrative actions and generally subverting the role of Congress in order to enact his agenda.


Shutting down Operating a seeming revolving door between the White House and Wall Street and K Street.


Signing legislation that would allow the military to indefinitely detain terror suspects, including American citizens arrested in the United States, without charge. Got 4th amendment? Not anymore, you don't.


Pushing through health care reform legislation in the sleaziest, most cynical, un-hopenchangey and business-as-usual manner possible.


Authorizing a program to assassinate American civilians.


Actually authorizing a drone strike hit that killed American-born Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan (from this point forward, we never... never want to hear a peep about water-boarding)


And adopting another Bush-like tendency in combating the war on terror: refusing to provide the legal justification for the killing of U.S. citizens.

*Forcing Catholic institutions to violate their faith conscience by not only mandating them to provide coverage for contraceptives but making it completely free of charge as well.*



*End-running Congress in order to make (totally not) in-recess appointments to the National Labor Review Board.*



*End-running Congress to install immigration policy that countermands the laws that are on the books after claiming just a few months ago that he could not do so because, correctly, that's not how our system works.*

Our system of checks and balances and separation of powers was set up this way to prevent acts of tyranny, a lesson this part-time Constitutional law lecturer didn't forget - he just never believed it in the first place.

Please let us know if there is anything about the above that does not make him absolutely power-mad and Bush a complete rank amateur in that department by comparison.

The more we think about it, the more we think this Bush/Obama mash-up does an extreme disservice to President Bush.





Share it. Share it, brothers and sisters with friends, family and particularly all those alleged Bush-hating Obama supporters to see who it is are the hypocrites in your life. Maybe they aren't hypocrites, however. Maybe they were just jealous that all that Costitution-shredding and amassing of executive power wasn't being done by their guy. Well, they're getting back in spades, now.


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More great moments in the history of crony capitalism

We suppose the good news here is that potentially only $43 million will be lost as opposed to the over $500 million that was sunk into the doomed-to-failure Solyndra outfit here in California.

Beacon Power Corp filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, just a year after the energy storage company received a $43 million loan guarantee from a controversial Department of Energy program.

The bankruptcy comes about two months after Solyndra -- a solar panel maker with a $535 million loan guarantee -- also filed for Chapter 11, creating a political embarrassment for the administration of President Barack Obama, which has championed the loans as a way to create "green energy" jobs.

Beacon Power drew down $39 million of its government-guaranteed loan to fund a portion of a $69 million, 20-megawatt flywheel energy storage plant in Stephentown, New York.

There are several key differences between the two loans, an Energy Department spokesman said on Sunday, noting the Beacon plant continues to operate, unlike Solyndra, which shut down shortly before filing for bankruptcy.

The Energy Department also had agreed to restructure Solyndra's debt in a last-ditch effort to keep the company alive, a deal which put taxpayers behind $75 million in private investment. But for the Beacon project, the government loan is the first debt the company must pay, the spokesman said.

(italics, ours)

It's comforting to know that in running this green jobs picking winners and losers program, the Dept. of Energy is becoming a little more PR-savvy in recognizing that it's important that the tax-payer recoup at least some of their "investment".


Oh, and about that crony capitalism thing, just how was it that Beacon Power secured that loan?

Beacon is using the money to develop a 20 MW regulation plant at a site in Stephenton, NY. The site will use several 1 MW flywheels to store energy as well as electrical and technological equipment.

Company spokesman Gene Hunt said Beacon didn’t have financial advisors per se, just its outside law firm of Edwards, Angell, Palmer & Dodge. “We also used our in-house expertise and we have good relationships with our congressional members.”

Per se!


For those of you scoring at home: the afore-linked Solyndra, SunPower, Fisker, Lightsquared and now Beacon Power.

Stacking up like cord wood.


H/T: Hot Air

Constitutional republics are, like, hard

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Remember when they told us that if we voted for McCain it would mean just four more years of consolidating executive power, end-arounding Congress and generally shredding the Constitution? Well, they were right.

In an interview with KOAA-TV, a local news channel from Colorado Springs, Colorado, President Obama says if Congress is not willing to pass legislation he wants, he will do it himself in order to win another term. Read the transcript below.

Rob Quirk, KOAA-TV: "And one year from today we will know if this a one-term or two-term president. So, I asked the president what will it take from now until then to not only win Colorado again, but reelection as well."

President Obama: "Well, what we're going to have to do is continue to make progress on the economy over the next several months. And where Congress is not willing to act, we're going to go ahead and do it ourselves. But it would be nice if we could get a little bit of help from Capitol Hill."

C'mon Obamabots. This is precisely the reason why you allegedly despised Bush. The fact that Congress won't do his bidding is of no constitutional relevance. Don't like the do-nothing Congress? Then don't get your asses kicked like you did in 2010 and you can continue to pass more disastrous legislation like the $800 billion Porkulus bill and the 2,200 page monstrosity, Obamacare, where we are still in the process of finding out what's in it.

This whole two-party thing is a bitch, ain't it? Funny how the Founders set things up with this concept of "checks and balances" to prevent the very abuse of power that we are seeing unfold before our very eyes. They must not have wanted to get anything done either, huh?

And just where does his Excellency get off assuming the American public wants what he's serving up? Again, the 2010 midterms were a pretty clear indication from where we sit that the electorate had enough of his Keynesian hocus pocus with respect to the economy and joblessness and were horrified that he made Bush look like a mere piker when it came to running up the national debt.

Face it, people. You're cheerleading for Bush's 4th term.




Time to re-do the math (O > W)

* = newbies since the last update

Closing Keeping open Gitmo.

Ending Formalizing the indefinite detention of suspected terrorists.

Ending Maintaining military tribunals.

Not letting unemployment get above 8 10.5 percent with a $800 billion stimulus package.

Discontinuing Continuing other Bush-era policies like rendition, Project Gunrunner and TARP.

Ending Throwing into warp drive the politicization of the Justice Department under the leadership of the biggest hack in the administration.

Engineering a bankruptcy cramdown of domestic auto companies that will most likely cost the U.S. tax-payers tens of billions of dollars.

* Interpreting the Patriot Act to collect information on people via mobile phone geolocating *

A crony capitalism that is disguised as a green jobs program.

* Including Fisker, SunPower and Beacon Hill

*


Engaging in an act of war against a country that posed no threat whatsoever to the U.S. with without the consent of Congress.

Swift Painfully slow response to national disasters.

Ending Maintaining the practice of signing statements.

* Subjecting our national security to an expensive green technology boondoggle that doubles down on the cronyism. *

* For you visual types, how about a federal government - Goldman Sachs Venn diagram? (thanks, W.C. ) *

Signing off on predator drone strikes for the ostensible purpose of assassinating a foreign head of state. And then doing so.

Using executive orders and administrative actions and generally subverting the role of Congress in order to enact his agenda.

Shutting down Operating a seeming revolving door between the White House and Wall Street and K Street.

Pushing through health care reform legislation in the sleaziest, most cynical, un-hopenchangey and business-as-usual manner possible.

Authorizing a program to assassinate American civilians. (We had previously neglected to add this rather Bushian but never Bush-authorized program. Shame on us.)

Actually authorizing a drone strike hit that killed American-born Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan (from this point forward, we never... never want to hear a peep about water-boarding)

And adopting another Bush-like tendency in combating the war on terror: refusing to provide the legal justification for the killing of U.S. citizens.

Graphic image of the day

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Used with permission from our friend Sir Charles over at Doo Doo Economics...

... and which serves as a convenient reminder of the Department of Energy's phony yet totally crony loan program that has lined the pockets of political favorites of those at:

Solyndra...

Fisker...

SunPower...

and Beacon Power

Let us know if we forgot any.

Constitutional republics are, like, hard (cont.)

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Here's the President earlier today in Shaker Heights, Ohio defending his (not in) recess appointments of 3 members of the National Labor Review Board:

But when Congress refuses to act, and as a result, hurts our economy and puts our people at risk, then I have an obligation as President to do what I can without them. (Applause.) I’ve got an obligation to act on behalf of the American people. And I’m not going to stand by while a minority in the Senate puts party ideology ahead of the people that we were elected to serve. (Applause.) Not with so much at stake, not at this make-or-break moment for middle-class Americans. We’re not going to let that happen. (Applause.)

(italics, ours)

No he doesn't. No, he absolutely does not ahead of an obligation to the Constitution.

Fancy that: Our constitutional scholar forgot about that whole obligation to the Constitution thing. He took an oath to uphold it or something.


However, considering how we led from behind in our efforts to protect civilians from wartime atrocities... take out military targets... whack the leader of a sovereign nation that posed no threat to us without Congressional authorization, this whole issue of a few (not in) recess appointments is kind of small potatoes but potatoes they are.


We didn't think we would have to update so soon but we fear we would start running behind if we waited too long.


A crowd favorite we're disappointed to announce but here it is... the O > W boogaloo jambaroo:

* = new entries

Closing Keeping open Gitmo.


Ending Formalizing the indefinite detention of suspected terrorists.


Ending Maintaining military tribunals.


Not letting unemployment get above 8 10.5 percent with a $800 billion stimulus package.


Discontinuing Continuing other Bush-era policies like rendition, Project Gunrunner and TARP.


Ending Throwing into warp drive the politicization of the Justice Department under the leadership of the biggest hack in the administration.


Engineering a bankruptcy cramdown of domestic auto companies that will most likely cost the U.S. tax-payers tens of billions of dollars.


Interpreting the Patriot Act to collect information on people via mobile phone geolocating


A crony capitalism that is disguised as a green jobs program.

Including Fisker, SunPower and Beacon Hill

Engaging in an act of war against a country that posed no threat whatsoever to the U.S. with without the consent of Congress.


Swift Painfully slow response to national disasters.


Ending Maintaining the practice of signing statements.


Subjecting our national security to an expensive green technology boondoggle that doubles down on the cronyism.


For you visual types, how about a federal government - Goldman Sachs Venn diagram? (thanks, W.C. )

Signing off on predator drone strikes for the ostensible purpose of assassinating a foreign head of state. And then doing so.


Using executive orders and administrative actions and generally subverting the role of Congress in order to enact his agenda.


Shutting down Operating a seeming revolving door between the White House and Wall Street and K Street.


* Signing legislation that would allow the military to indefinitely detain terror suspects, including American citizens arrested in the United States, without charge. Got 4th amendment? Not anymore, you don't. *


Pushing through health care reform legislation in the sleaziest, most cynical, un-hopenchangey and business-as-usual manner possible.


Authorizing a program to assassinate American civilians.


Actually authorizing a drone strike hit that killed American-born Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan (from this point forward, we never... never want to hear a peep about water-boarding)


And adopting another Bush-like tendency in combating the war on terror: refusing to provide the legal justification for the killing of U.S. citizens.

The more we think about it, the more we think this Bush/Obama mash-up does an extreme disservice to President Bush.





Share it. Share it, brothers and sisters with friends, family and particularly all those alleged Bush-hating Obama supporters to see who it is are the hypocrites in your life.

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Don't expect a change any time soon

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When the President signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act back in November of last year granting himself the power to indefinetely detain U.S. citizens here on American soil without cause, we're wondering if he had this lady in mind.

Sheryl Attkisson of CBS News has been one of the few members of the legacy media to cover Fast and Furious and now she will continue to be a thorn in the side of the administration as she gets into the failed and corrupt Department of Energy green energy loan program.


A123 Systems builds batteries for electric cars and they spent $1 million in lobbying efforts and for their trouble they received $249 million in federal stimulus funding. This allowed them to employ 1,000 people to make these batteries - one small problem, however, the batteries don't work.



Here's Attkisson's report:






Oh goody. They've still got $100 million of our money to blow through on a product/technology for which they did not receive the original grant money. Considering their success with the battery, what could possibly go wrong?


And as for the Fisker, perhaps the slow demand, aside from the fact that it doesn't work is due to the fact that the two models being produced (in Finland... with over $500 million of our money, no less) cost $97,000 and $57,400 a copy and, unfortunately, we currently have a shortage of rich, smug liberals.


As the subject of this post, suggests, no amount of these embarrassing failures are going to dissuade these rigid ideological extremists from behaving any diffently.


H/T: Hot Air


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And now for something a little different...

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We were fortunate enough to be invited to be on Silvio Canto's internet radio show last night.


We spent the majority of the time talking California's high-speed choo-choos at the front end of the program and a little on Solyndra, Fisker and the Department of Energy's inept and corrupt green loan program right at the end of the show.


Link to webcast here.

Check it out if you get a chance.


Thanks to Silvio for the opportunity to be on and for being such a gracious host and also to Leslie of Temple of Mut for shepherding us through the process.

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