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A September item from "Coach is Right" blog, just making news in the "legacy media!" Just when you thought crony handouts of taxpayer millions couldn’t get much worse than the White House managed Solyndra debacle, along comes the story of global warming shyster Al Gore and fledgling, plug-in hybrid car maker Fisker Automotive, Inc. In 2009, Gore happened to be at an event hosted by the California venture capital firm of Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield and Byers. Of course, Al happened to be there because he is a PARTNER in the firm. Well low and behold, Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker just...

Yesterday, another shoe dropped in the chronicles of the Obama administration’s crony capitalism. A start-up electric car company with ties to Al Gore got a $529 million loan guarantee from Obama’s Department of Energy to build luxury electric cars...in Finland! Leaving aside the fact that to date only two of these $97,000 cars have been sold (one of them to a movie star), we might at least hope that this ridiculous exercise in the government picking winners minus any competitive, transparent process (Al Gore’s venture cap firm) and losers (the taxpayers subsidizing a car no one wants) would produce manufacturing jobs in the...

Wirh approval from the Obama adminstration $529 million

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...

The Department of Energy is standing by a $529 million loan guarantee to a company building an electric car line in Finland. A department official, in a lengthy response posted on a government blog Thursday night, confirmed that the company Fisker is assembling its Karma electric car at its "overseas facility." The response comes after ABC News reported that the Obama administration gave the green light for the company to move the manufacturing to Finland two years after announcing the loan. The ABC News report noted the political connections enjoyed by Fisker and another company, Tesla Motors, which together received...

WASHINGTON -- 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...

Video 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....

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...

ABC NEWS and iWATCH NEWS Today, 9:47 PM EDT 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 has been outsourced to Finland.

This car, which you can buy for a mere $100,000, was brough to your by a half billion dollar loan from the US Department of Energy, made in Finland using batteries and electric motors made in China. But I'll let Andrew explain it: Our tax dollars at work… a half-billion dollar loan (actually $529 million) from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a hybrid toy for the wealthy and/or celebri-licious (like Leonardo DiCaprio, one of the first customers) that, in real world driving, won’t get much better mileage than your average crossover utility vehicle. Not only that, but...

So strange that the pressure to leave the single currency will mount for some as the continuing, sticking-plaster approach to the crisis continues. But who? Greece can't survive outside the eurozone and Germany, an obvious candidate, knows the economic devastation of its exit would be too much. But if you were small enough and economically strong enough to stand alone, and therefore escape the escalating costs of saving the euro, then why not? Step forward Finland. As Matthew Lynn argues in a paper for Strategy Economics, Finland enjoys a current account surplus of €3.3bn and its overseas assets exceed liabilities...

Nokia to cut 3,500 jobs, close Romania plant Thu Sep 29, 2011 5:31am EDT By Tarmo Virki, European Technology Correspondent HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia Oyj, the world's largest cellphone vendor by volume, is cutting 3,500 jobs in its second major restructuring move in a year, as it struggles with falling sales and profits. Chief executive Stephen Elop, who took over at Nokia a year ago, unveiled the plans, including a factory closure and a new executive chairman for telecom gear joint venture Nokia Siemens Networks, on Thursday. The company said it would close the Cluj factory in Romania, leading to...

http://internet-haganah.com/harchives/007413.html "Whither the jihadi forums?" SNIPPET: "There are currently only three jihadi forums that are sufficiently active and well-connected to be of any interest whatsoever. Why we claim to be on the verge of defeating al-Qaida while simultaneously watching passively as they use these forums to regroup and regenerate is beyond me. These are the forums three: • al-Fidaa, a forum created by al-Qaida core. That it is directly linked to al-Qaida by definition moves it to the top of the list. Current membership: 2,462, all of whom can be considered "active" if only because they just joined the forum....

Just when you thought crony handouts of taxpayer millions couldn’t get much worse than the White House managed Solyndra debacle, along comes the story of global warming shyster Al Gore and fledgling, plug-in hybrid car maker Fisker Automotive, Inc. In 2009, Gore happened to be at an event hosted by the California venture capital firm of Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield and Byers. Of course, Al happened to be there because he is a PARTNER in the firm. Well low and behold, Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker just happened to be there too and pitched Gore on the virtues of his 50 mile-per-battery-charged,...

Just for comparison for the subject here are some facts how silencers are treated in Finland. Silencers are not considered to be "parts of a firearm", that means that anyone can build one, own one and buy or sell one without any restrictions. Just as grips or scopes. There are no special taxes on silencers, of course for everything you buy the 22% VAT is included. Silencers have been found useful in preventing noise-pollution of shooting ranges that are near urban areas. Several studies have been made on subject should silencers be obligatory. One study made by State Department of...

Once again the bond markets have spoken, and once again the message is the same: default. Greek two-year bonds are near 44%, having touched as high as 46%. The interest rate on 1-year Greek government debt is a stunning 59.8%.  Greece Not Saved  Supposedly "Greece was Saved" on that blue circle when yet another bailout (throwing more good money after bad) was approved.  The deal unraveled for numerous reasons but demands by Finland for collateral are at or near the top of the list. Austria, Slovakia, and the Netherlands now want collateral as well.  Under great pressure from Germany, the...

‘Finland puts bomb under EU bailout plans’, headlines De Volkskrant, reporting on Finland's demand that Greece put up collateral against Helsinki's participation in the Greek bailout. According to the Dutch newspaper, the two countries have now struck a deal, and four others – Austria, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Slovenia – are now demanding similar guarantees, leading to fears for the stability of the July 21 agreement to save Greece. In the Netherlands several MPs have already asked the finance minister to take action. De Volkskrant says it is unclear what Greece could offer as collateral to Finland. Probably not islands...

Austrian minister suggests his country might ask for same agreement with Greece Austria opposes Finland's deal with Greece on collateral for loans and will demand collateral as well if eurozone countries approve Finland's deal, a spokesman from Austrian finance ministry was quoted in a newspaper report as saying. "The collateral model has to be open to all the euro zone countries. We will figure out if that's the case," Harald Waiglein from the finance ministry told Finland's biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat in a phone interview. Earlier this week Finland reached a deal with Greece on collateral, its key condition for...

Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja would like weapons to disappear from private homes, reports Social Democratic newspaper Uutispäivä Demari. Tuomioja says there is no need to keep weapons at home, adding that weapons obtained for hobby purposes, like hunting and shooting, can be stored on the premises of monitored clubs. He notes that such hobbies do not require automatic weapons or repeating firearms. According to the minister, the gun law reform that came into force in June was a step in the right direction, but there is still a way to go.

To anyone sane of mind, it's pretty obvious that something, basically, is wrong about the way large parts of European and American economy is run today. Scandinavia is an exception - and a bigger one than most people are aware of. Our German neighbors are beginning to realize this and lately Chancellor Merkel have been very successful in restoring economic growth on German soil. Presently, the German economy, after 20 years of a sad standstill, is growing at a pace nearing that of Sweden. Scandinavia (including Finland) taken as a whole is today the World's 10th largest economy despite it's...