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$529M Gov't Loan To Develop $89,000 Hybrid Sports Car
theodp writes "The WSJ reports that a tiny car company backed by former VP Al Gore has just gotten a $529M US government loan to help build an $89,000 hybrid sports car in Finland. The award this week to California startup Fisker Automotive follows an earlier $465M government loan to Tesla Motors, purveyors of a $109,000 British-built electric Roadster. Fisker's other investors (PDF) include the Al Gharaffa Investment Co., a Cayman Islands corporation."
People wanted "change", and Socialism is what they voted for and what they are getting. Is this coming as some surprise?
Don't blame me... I wasted my vote, as usual... Libertarian. Nothing will ever be fixed until we get rid of the only-two-party-system. That means instant-runoff voting and elimination of the electoral college.
When did the WSJ sink to the level of Fox news? The article seems to imply that Al Gore controls the entire Department of Energy, and that Fiskar and Tesla are entirely foreign built. Does the WSJ hate the environment enough to become a kneejerk conservative rag? nickous and couchslug are right; these investments will help American technology in the long run, especially at a time when our 'conventional' domestic automakers aren't doing that hot.
The summary reeks of an agenda
Just like Al Gore. Not long ago, back in April, he was incensed in the Congress when questioned about whether or not he would personally benefit from environmental legislation. If Republicans were giving themselves half a billion government dollars, we'd never hear the end of it. I guess that's the Democrat playbook:
1. Invest in companies that can "solve some issue".
2. Make liberals feel bad about the issue.
3. Liberals feel so bad they campaign to enact legislation to fix the issue.
4. Write legislation to give companies you've backed massive amounts of money.
5. Profit!
6. Laugh at the idiots that support you, they're too stupid to realize that you're taking advantage of them. Rinse and repeat.
You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer. - Winston Churchill
there is no shortage of energy in the universe, so I reject the notion of making sacrifices for your environment-god. the world has been much colder and much hotter than it is now, carbon dioxide concentrations many times what they are now. life adapts. humans are natural, anything humans do is by definition natural. humans are the most important thing in this world, no mere animal or group of animals is as important as humans.
fuck man-hating enviro-nazis and their religion. if they believe man is a burden and curse on the universe, they can make a sacrifice and hurl themselves off a cliff.
I said "class", which /= "dictatorship". Neither Stalin or Caesar have anything to do with that. Invoking them is not different from what the confused Republicans do who compare Obama to Hitler and Stalin.
No one ever got power by defying the masses, while many both Bush and Obama very much included!) have got power
by pandering to them. Pandering is mandatory, end of story.
Saying anything nasty about the masses is understandably unpopular given current ideological fashion, but intelligent folk should remember that the proles are not their friends. The herd are who persecute the intelligent and gifted, who support backward beliefs and superstition/religion, and in general retard social and scientific progress. They are led by manipulation, so why not both admit it and exploit it? You can't improve these people and they will crucify anyone who tries. One can seek positions of power and favor with groups the masses support, and a very few fortunates can do this and get power over those masses.
It is fashionable to complain about evil leaders, which ignores what the people demand in return for their votes!
Anyone seeking office must pander to the ignorance, bigotry, superstition, envy, sloth, avarice, nationalism, racism, ethnocentrism, and other lovely characteristics of their "base". I argue that the intelligent cannot win a direct confrontation, so the only logical option is to self-segregate, look to create healthy environments for themselves, and seek to exploit every useful opportunity to get money and power (which equal freedom). As for the masses, fuck 'em. Use intelligence and social mobility to escape the bottom, and Cthulhu take the hindmost.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Ok. Then I'll take my half a trillion dollars and stop investing it in the military. Seems like a much better tax savings than $500 million. $500 million is a rounding error.
It's not Colin Powell's fault that his party has become completely irrelevant.