Local NAACP chapter condemns Al Sharpton's call for escalated civil disobedience

Rally Saturday in Sanford hosted by NAACP
Author: Erik von Ancken, Anchor/Reporter, evonancken@clickorlando.com

Published On: Mar 30 2012 06:47:35 PM EDT Updated On: Mar 30 2012 08:02:56 PM EDT

SANFORD, Fla. -
The Rev. Al Sharpton said Friday his National Action Network will "move to the next level" if George Zimmerman is not arrested in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

Sharpton called for an escalation in peaceful civil disobedience and economic sanctions, although he did not say what those sanctions might be.

Turner Clayton, the Seminole County chapter president of the NAACP, reacted immediately to Sharpton's warning, saying, "We hope that the citizens of Sanford will govern themselves accordingly. We are not calling for any sanctions, against any business or anyone else. And, of course, what Rev. Sharpton does, that's strictly the [National] Action Network. We can't condone that part of the conversation, if that's what he said."

Clayton said he believes that the expected 3,000 people who will attend Saturday's march and rally in Sanford will realize the difference between Sharpton's message and the NAACP's mission.

"I don't think they can confuse that," Clayton said. "It's just that they will have to make a judgment as to whether they want to follow the mission of the NAACP or follow what the Rev. Sharpton said."

Clayton said that the rallies are going to show support from the community and show the special prosecutor that "we are interested in what happened, and we're not going to stand by and let them do something that the people of Sanford will not accept."

Saturday's rally will begin with a march from the Crooms Academy to the Sanford Police Department on 13th Street. The march begins at 11 a.m. and is hosted by the NAACP.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson is expected to attend, along with Sharpton, who is expected to deliver specifics on his warning.

Sanford city workers spent the day discussing security and preparing for the rally, including setting up barricades, signs, cones and a stage.

Zimmerman, a 28-year-old neighborhood watch leader, shot and killed Martin, 17, last month, in a gated community in Sanford. Zimmerman claims the shooting was in self-defense.

original posting found here -
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Civil-rights-leaders-condemn-Sharpton-s-call-for-escalated-civil-disobedience/-/1637132/9863196/-/owq31pz/-/index.html

Dr. Alveda King: Sharpton, Jackson should stop ‘playing race card’ over Trayvon Martin

By Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller   10:30 AM 03/28/2012

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece is criticizing the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson for politicizing the Trayvon Martin shooting and leveraging racial tensions to rile up Americans.

Conservative activist Dr. Alveda King, now the director of African-American outreach at Priests for Life and the founder of King For America, said she hopes Sharpton and Jackson stop “stirring up the people without positive solutions” in Sanford, Fla., and elsewhere in the U.S.

“I would believe that, by stirring up all of the emotions and reactions, I wanted to encourage them to remember the man that they say that they followed, to remember that his message was nonviolence and very loving,” King told The Daily Caller, referencing her late uncle. She added that she wanted to encourage Jackson and Sharpton “to talk about nonviolence and not to incite people with that race card that they are very good at playing.”

“Nonviolence was a very important part of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr,” she added. “So, we want to encourage people to be nonviolent in their responses, to be thorough in their research and that justice must be done…We want justice to come, but we want nonviolent responses to this really tragic and terrible incident.”

King hasn’t made up her mind about the facts of this case and who is responsible for what, but believes there should be a full investigation. She told TheDC that she agrees with former Republican presidential candidate and businessman Herman Cain, however, who has asked for a full investigation instead of “swirling rhetoric.”

“I believe that it should be thoroughly investigated,” she told TheDC. “I believe that it should be discovered whether there was undue force. If Trayvon did work to defend himself, he was not armed and so that is an unfair fight right there. Trayvon was not armed and the man who shot him was. So there is a possibility of undue force.” (RELATED: Full coverage of the Trayvon Martin shooting)

She said her heart goes out to Trayvon Martin’s family and she understands what they’re going through. “I’m very concerned about Trayvon’s family,” King said. “I’m praying as well, and many members of my family are as well… Several of us have experienced death of family members by shooting.”

“My grandmother, Mama King, Alberta Williams King, was shot in Ebenezer Baptist Church,” King continued. “My uncle, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., of course, was shot. And, then, my dad [Alfred Daniel Williams King] was killed the next year, drowned in a swimming pool. So, we are not unfamiliar with these kinds of shocks and tragedies to a family. And, so, my first thought is to pray for the family.”

King hopes Americans won’t continue to “hype this up so much to a point and make all this big demonstrations. Of course, there should be an outrage and there should be an outcry. But, remember: There are many other young people who are at risk and many young people getting killed in violent situations.”

She said if her father, A.D. King, and uncle, Martin Luther King Jr., were still alive today, they would handle this tragedy much differently from how Sharpton and Jackson have so far.

“I remember when our home was bombed, and my dad went out to the people and he said, ‘please don’t riot, please don’t react violently, my family and I are alright,’” King said. “’If you have to hit anybody, hit me. So please, I’d rather you be nonviolent and don’t strike out.’ So, my uncle would urge a call for justice but he would also urge nonviolence in responses. He would do that, I can assure you he would.”

Moving forward on this storyline, King said Americans “should be watchful for racial profiling, for stereotypical responses.”

“We also should urge people to know that we are one human race,” she said. “We’re not separate races. There’s only one human race.”

King said the news media — which she said was largely responsible for Martin’s story gaining a massive national following — should remember that there are many struggles being encountered by America’s youth.

“I would like for the media to be aware of how dire circumstances are and to be a little more compassionate in reporting and to be fair, of course,” King said. “To be honest and truthful, but to know that we’re dealing with some dire circumstances and this is not a one-time occurrence. There are issues involved here — certainly the racial issue is a question, but it’s not the only thing because we have violence against young people from those who are within their own racial communities and their own ethnic groups.”

King adds that racism still exists in America today, and the American people need to watch for it and fight back the way her uncle, Martin Luther King, Jr., taught. “This is the 21st century and we would all like to think racism is dead in America,” King said. “Actually, that’s not the case, still there are some racial issues that are out across this nation and so we have a responsibility as compassionate citizens of America, no matter what our ethnic group happens to be, to confront these issues when they arise. The best way to confront it is with God’s love, and if my uncle and my father were here today, they’d say that to you: ‘God’s love.’”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/28/alveda-king-sharpton-jackson-should-stop-playing-race-card-over-trayvon-martin/#ixzz1qWwNtVfX

Agents appeared to have probable cause to arrest Fast and Furious suspect, documents show

Published March 22, 2012

Documents released Thursday show that federal agents appeared to have probable cause to arrest the biggest buyer of assault weapons in the Fast and Furious operation -- eight months before Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's death ended the scandal-ridden program.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, have demanded Attorney General Eric Holder provide a briefing as to why ringleader Manuel Celis Acosta was not arrested earlier given repeated evidence that he was running guns.

"I think the Department of Justice is the Department of Injustice," Grassley said on Capitol Hill. "They can't expect people to believe that they couldn't arrest this guy."

On April 2, 2010, Phoenix Police stopped Celis Acosta. In the car they found eight weapons, none of which were registered to him. At least one, a Colt .38, had been bought just a few days earlier by Uriel Patino, who had already bought 434 weapons in the previous six months.

It is illegal to buy a gun for anyone other than yourself. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has argued it did not have probable cause to arrest Patino or Celis Acosta. These new documents suggest they did, raising new doubts about the agency's desire to actually bust the trafficking ring.

Two months later, on May 29, 2010, Celis Acosta was stopped again, this time driving a 2002 BMW 754i trying to cross into Mexico. Inside, border agents found 74 rounds of AK-47 ammunition and nine cell phones hidden in the trunk. ATF Special Agent Hope MacAllister and her counterpart from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Layne France, released him after he promised to cooperate in the future. MacAllister wrote her phone number on a $10 bill.

Celis Acosta had been under ATF surveillance since October 2009. He had been a suspect in a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation, but when he began buying guns for the Sinaloa Cartel, the DEA alerted ATF. The two agencies shared a wiretap until ATF got its own. The ATF also set up a camera mounted on a telephone pole outside his home where they watched guns and money change hands in his garage multiple times.

On April 7, police in El Paso also seized another load of weapons assembled by Celis Acosta. All the guns had been bought in Phoenix by straw buyers under watch by Operation Fast and Furious. Some belonged to Patino, who again appeared to be trafficking weapons.

ATF managers have told Congress they could not arrest anyone because the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona would not allow it since agents lacked probable cause that a crime was committed. They also admit knowingly allowing some guns to be illegally purchased in order to further their investigation.

Many in Congress don't buy it.

"If you find somebody carrying a massive number of guns across the border that you didn't have reason to arrest them?" said Grassley. "That just doesn't hold water as far as I am concerned. It doesn't pass the laugh test."

More than 100 Republicans in the House have signed a resolution asking for Holder to resign.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/22/agents-appeared-to-have-probable-cause-to-arrest-fast-and-furious-suspect/?intcmp=trending#ixzz1px1b6Pzr

Obama Tries to Deflect Blame on Solyndra, Keystone

Published March 22, 2012 | FoxNews.com

"Obviously we wish Solyndra hadn't gone bankrupt. Part of the reason they did was the Chinese were subsidizing their solar industry and flooding the market in ways Solyndra couldn't compete. But understand, this was not our program per se."

-- President Obama talking to National Public Radio's "Marketplace."

President Obama is on a swing-state campaign blitz this week, looking to stifle voter anger over high energy prices. While the White House is casting the trip as an effort to lay out Obama's vision for future energy abundance, much of the message is aimed at reducing the supply of blame.

Today, for example, Obama will speak in Cushing, Okla., the pipeline capital of the planet, to point out that while he has blocked a pipeline to bring Canadian oil to the Gulf of Mexico, he is allowing other domestic pipelines to be built.

The pipeline to Canada, the Keystone XL, is a political winner. Polls consistently show Americans favor its construction and Republicans have been hammering the president for months for his obstruction of the project.

Obama seems to be in the midst of a creeping climb-down on the subject, but he has to move slowly.

Remember, many liberals dislike the project because it would provide so much oil to gasoline refineries. The cheaper gas is for American drivers, the more gasoline they will use. Environmentalists believe all this driving is causing the earth's atmosphere to become dangerously warm.

Obama, who is a long-time crusader against global warming, has suffered politically for his opposition to the pipeline. Global warming has faded as a concern for voters amid a lengthy economic disruption and with new doubts about the most alarming claims made by carbon hawks. With gasoline prices more than twice as high as they were when Obama took office, consumers are far less indulgent of Obama's environmental policies.

The president's point in Cushing is that while he won't allow the top of the pipeline to go where the oil is, he has chosen not to block pipeline expansions at the southern end. This, of course, makes folks in the energy business furious. To have the president demanding credit for not blocking domestic pipeline upgrades is galling to them. They need executive blessing to cross the international border with Canada, but for domestic jobs they mostly just need Obama not to interfere and allow the permitting process to work as in the past.

The Obama campaign and White House have both made clear that the part of the pipeline that goes to the oil may yet be approved. The problem, they say, is that Republicans hurried the process. Again, Obama is seeking bipartisan blame.

When builders apply again with a new proposal, says Team Obama, the State Department may find new wisdom in their proposal and allow it to proceed.

This is how general elections change things. For the past seven months, Obama has been looking to pacify his sometimes-crabby political base. For the next seven months, Obama will be looking for ways to convince moderates that he really isn't as liberal as they think. This is the way in which Keystone can go from bad to good.

This week's campaign swing is Obama's effort to show moderates that he isn't really so radical on energy. Some of Obama's biggest political missteps surround energy policy, particularly his effort to impose global warming fees and the massive outlays given to Democratic allies for dubious green energy projects.

Obama's first stop was in must-win Nevada, where he defended subsidies for solar energy, a tricky subject given the high-profile debacle at Solyndra, a pet project of big Obama donors that got a presidential visit and lots of public help.

While making his push for solar, Obama explained to a reporter for National Public Radio that the blame for Solyndra was bipartisan and not the fault of the Obama Democrats "per se."

"Congress, Democrats and Republicans, put together a loan guarantee program because they understood historically that when you get new industries, it's easy to get money for new startups," Obama said. "But if you want to take them to scale, often there is a lot of risk involved and what the loan guarantee program was designed to do was to help start-up companies get to scale."

The 2009 stimulus package that provided the funding for a loan of $527 million for Solyndra, which subsequently defaulted, got zero Republican votes in the House and three Republican votes in the Senate -- Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and former Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, who switched parties two months after the vote. There was no Republican input on the structuring of the energy loan program and the specific loan to Solyndra was a Democratic job from start to finish.

It's true that there has been bipartisan support for the Federal Financing Bank since before its founding in 1973. Republicans have increasingly come to dislike the idea of giving the government power to loan money to private enterprises -- "picking winners and losers" -- because of a growing opposition to crony capitalism and how it perverts politics and the marketplace. But crony capitalism was once very, very popular among moderate Republicans who cherished "public-private partnerships" and other hidey-holes for public funds.

But to suggest that Solyndra, the pet project of a major Obama backer, George Kaiser, was somehow a bipartisan failure because Rockefeller Republicans like the idea of using other people's money to start businesses is a little far-fetched. That would be like the driver at fault in a car crash arguing that roads enjoy widespread public support and crashes are inevitable: "While my car may have collided with yours, surely we can all agree that infrastructure is vital to America."

Solyndra was a debacle even if you like the idea of government giving money to preferred businesses: donor influence, ignored warnings, poor judgment, bad timing.

Solyndra made the opponents of "picking winners and losers" jobs too easy. Here, in one case, is everything the small-government conservatives have argued. Borrowing money from China to try to match Chinese subsidies for that country's solar sector is a tough enough sell. Doing so in a way that might enrich political benefactors is far worse.

Friday is the second birthday of the president's largest lingering liability from his term: a health law that most voters think will be expensive, disruptive and ineffective. The Supreme Court begins several days of arguments on the law, thought to be unconstitutional by most Americans, on Monday.

The process will remind moderate voters of their frustrations with Obama and his policies in a big way. It's unfortunate for the president that the health law revival comes amid voter anger with his energy policies, and this campaign trip is an effort to reduce his liabilities on energy before Americans spend several days talking about the law they dislike that also happens to be Obama's most significant accomplishment.

If Obama can't knock down the perception that he is too liberal, events will compound quickly and leave him unable to pull of a new, more centrist posture.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/22/obama-tries-to-spread-blame-on-solyndra-keystone/print#ixzz1ptpRrL2o

Racially Charged ? ?? ???

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A 13-year-old Kansas City boy is back home after two teenagers poured gasoline on him and lit him on fire.

 It happened Tuesday at the teen's home on Quincy Avenue, just down the street from Kansas City's East High School. The boy lives less than two blocks away from the school and was walking home when the attack happened.

 Melissa Coon said her son turned from the school's stadium onto Quincy Avenue and noticed two teenagers following him. She said the teens followed her son home and attacked him outside his front door.

 "And they rushed him on the porch as he tried to get the door open," she said. "(One of them) poured the gasoline, then flicked the Bic, and said, 'This is what you deserve. You get what you deserve, white boy'."

 The two attackers ran away, and the eighth grader put the fire out with the shirt off his back. He managed to call 911 on his own, then his father. He was taken by ambulance to Children's Mercy Hospital and spent several hours in the hospital's burn unit.

 "You could smell the burned skin," said Coon. "You could smell the burned hair. It was just horrible." Her son lost some of his eyelashes, eyebrows, and some of the hair around his face was singed. Coon said she knows her son is lucky -- but also can't believe someone would do that to her child.

 Coon said the incident will have a lingering effect on her family.

"My five year old came in and asked me, 'Mom, am I going to get set on fire today?'" she said. "I was in tears."

 Coon said her family will move from their home and her son will not return to East High School. She said he thinks his attackers may be students there.

Police said the two suspects are male and have facial hair. Police said one was wearing a blue hat, blue jacket, and shoes with the number 23 on the side. The other wore a blue hat, a black jacket, and wore glasses.

Absent from this report’s account, other media outlets report the victim was white, and the two suspects were reported as being black. 

I too mourn the loss and in no way support the senseless shooting Trayvon Martin.

Where was the moral outrage, demonstrations, national media coverage, when this incident occurred?

Did Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, celebrity figures, non-profit activist agencies, cry out for justice for this mother’s child?

I am simply pointing out an inconsistency here….

Original link here:

http://www.kmbc.com/r/30572405/detail.html

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-03-04/news/31122324_1_white-boy-fire-tv-station

http://www.kctv5.com/story/17048649/teens-set-13-year-old-student-on-fire

Prime gunwalking suspect was held by ATF but released, documents show

March 19, 2012 5:19 PM

By Sharyl Attkisson

The prime suspect in the botched gun trafficking investigation known as "Fast and Furious" -- Manuel Acosta -- was taken into custody and might have been stopped from trafficking weapons to Mexico's killer drug cartel early on. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) let him go, according to new documents obtained by CBS News.

An ATF "Report of Investigation" obtained by CBS News shows Border Patrol agents stopped Acosta's truck on May 29, 2010. Inspectors said they found illegal materials including an "AK type, high capacity drum magazine loaded with 74 rounds of 7.62 ammunition underneath the spare tire." They also noted ledgers including a "list of firearms such as an AR15 short and a Bushmaster" and a "reference about money given to 'killer.'"

ATF "Report of Investigation"

The Border Patrol ran a check and found Acosta was already "under investigation for firearms trafficking" in Fast and Furious, so they called in the lead ATF case agent Hope MacAllister. Under questioning, Acosta allegedly described his contacts with a Mexican cartel member nicknamed "Chendi," and admitted going to Chendi's house for a shipment of narcotics.

More gunwalker questions for Attorney General Holder
 

PICTURES: ATF "Gunwalking" scandal timeline

But ATF knew even more about Acosta's alleged illegal activities than what he described in the interview. ATF trace records showed "a large number of the weapons purchase by the Acosta organization are AK type rifles or FN Herstal pistols" which Acosta referred to as "cop killers" and said were preferred by drug cartels.

Instead of pursuing charges, Agent MacAllister asked Acosta if he'd be willing to cooperate with federal agents. He agreed and was released. Apparently, the promised cooperation never materialized. The report notes that 17 days after Acosta was let loose, he still had "not initiated any contact with Special Agent MacAllister."

In a letter today, Congressional Republicans investigating Fast and Furious asked the Justice Department why Acosta wasn't arrested in May of 2010. They also want to know why the Justice Department failed to turn over the documents on Acosta's detainment and release, which were covered under a longstanding subpoena.

Documents: ATF used "Fast and Furious" to make the case for gun regulations

Memos contradict Holder on Fast and Furious
 

Agent: I was ordered to let guns "walk" into Mexico
 

Gunwalking scandal uncovered at ATF

One law enforcement source calls the Acosta report "completely embarrassing." "He's exporting ammunition, which is a violation of law," says the source. "But they let him go."

Before releasing Acosta, MacAllister wrote her contact information on a $10 bill at Acosta's request, gave it to him, then warned him "not to participate in any illegal activity unless under her direction."

Acosta wasn't arrested until Feb. 2, 2011, more than eight months after the Border Patrol stop. By then, ATF had allowed more than 2,000 weapons to "walk" into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, and two of the rifles had turned up at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

The Justice Department and ATF had no immediate comment. ATF officials who approved of Fast and Furious have said they were trying to get to the "big fish" in a drug cartel.

In a related case also run by ATF's Phoenix office, CBS News has reported a grenade parts trafficker named Jean Baptiste Kingery was caught smuggling 114 disassembled grenades in a tire in 2010, but was released. The same prosecutors faulted in Fast and Furious allegedly refused to bring charges saying grenade parts are "novelty items" and the case "lacked jury appeal." Mexican authorities arrested Kingery a year later at a stash house with enough materials for 1,000 grenades.

The Inspector General has been investigating Fast and Furious for more than a year. Attorney General Eric Holder, who's denied knowing about any gunwalking, has said use of the "inappropriate tactics is neither acceptable nor excusable."

The Justice Department had no immediate comment. ATF told CBS News: "The criminal case is still ongoing in federal court, and there is also inspector general's investigation looking at the overall case. Therefore, ATF cannot comment about the investigation.

Click here for link to original article

Ooooh, that is bad Karma. + UPDATE + Historical Perspective

You can't make this stuff up....Again, YOUR tax dollars at work.

A six-figure Fisker Karma electrified sedan broke during Consumer Reports check-in period, before the magazine even could begin testing it, delivering another black eye to the struggling automaker.

"Our Fisker Karma cost us $107,850. It is super sleek, high-tech—and now it's broken," the magazine lamented in its blog today in an item headlined "Bad Karma."

CR explains:

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.

In comments to Drive On, Fisker said the dealership was able to start the car and drive it off the flatbed truck, and that it was operating as of tonight. Fisker's official statement:

Yesterday a Fisker owner, Consumer Reports, experienced a service event with the Karma they recently purchased from a local retailer.

As a new company introducing a new technology into the marketplace, customer satisfaction and a quick and thorough response to any issue is our primary focus.

As part of the Fisker VIP Customer Service program, the local Fisker retailer immediately arranged for the car to be picked up and diagnosed by trained service technicians.

Our engineers are in contact with the retailer and are working closely with them to understand the cause and resolve the issue so they can return the car to their customer quickly.

With about 2,000 Karmas built to date, 1,000 at retailers and 500 in customer hands, there are many satisfied Fisker owners around the world, driving without incident.

Fisker has snagged star points. Teen heart-throb Justin Bieber was surprised with a Karma for his 18th birthday on Ellen DeGeneres' daytime talk show last month.

Aston Kutcher and Leonardo DiCaprio also have Fiskers.

But the company has been staggering through problems, as well.

Last month, Fisker ran dry of federal loan money and had to stop work at a former GM plant in Delaware it promised to revive. It laid off 26 people from the skeleton crew working there, and also began earlier-than-planned layoffs of several dozen engineers at its headquarters in California.

The Department of Energy had halted loan cash to Fisker last May because the company failed to meet production and sales commitments it made to obtain the $529 million DOE loan. The company has been unsuccessful in re-negotiating the loan terms.

Fisker says it's trying to raise money privately.

An activist group called Judicial Watch said last month it is suing the government to get the secret details of the Fisker loan.

And late last month, company founder Henrik Fisker stepped down as CEO and was replaced by Tom LaSorda, formerly CEO at Chrysler Group.

Consumer Reports says it still will complete a test of the Fisker Karma, a plug-in hybrid that's supposed to go up to 33 miles on battery power only, and has a gasoline engine for supplemental power. Says CR:

Building an all-new car company from the ground up is a monumental challenge, especially for a car with innovative drivetrain technology like the Karma. Designing, engineering, certification, manufacturing, and distributing an all-new car pose giant hurdles for a start-up company.

We encountered other problems with a Karma press car that visited the track for a few hours, and we have heard of problems at press events. In addition, we see that some owners are experiencing a variety of issues, as evidenced by forums such as FiskerBuzz.com.

When we get the car back, we'll film a First Drive video with our more traditional initial impressions. But so far, Fisker ownership is proving to be a bumpy ride.

UPDATE:
Our Fisker Karma returns from the dealership with a new battery pack

Mar 12, 2012 5:15 PM

Last week, our $107,850 Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid flashed an error message and locked in gear with just 180 miles on the odometer. The disabled car was taken on a flatbed truck to the dealership where we bought the car. Now, after 48 hours at the shop, the Karma has experienced a rebirth, and it is operating fine at our test track. (Read the original post: “Bad Karma: Our Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid breaks down.”)

Our problem occurred during routine speedometer calibration runs on our test track, part of the standard procedures for checking in new vehicles. This exercise involves running the car up to 65 mph to check the accuracy of the speedometer. With the warning light on and chime sounding what would become a death knell, we coasted to a halt next to our maintenance garage, where the car went into Neutral, and would then only move from Neutral to Park. After letting the car sit for an hour, we were able to restart and move the vehicle, but the error message reappeared and it again locked in gear when parked.

The dealer’s repair invoice says the problem was “duplicated repeatedly.” A “fault was found in the battery and inverter cable. Both were replaced as a unit.” In other words, we now have a brand-new lithium-ion drive battery pack provided under warranty, though likely costing as much as a small, fuel-efficient car. Throughout the process, the dealer’s service department kept us up to date on the progress. And they were courteous enough to wash the car and charge it up before shipping the luxury sedan back to us.

With the car back, we will continue with our check-in procedures and begin logging break-in miles before the formal testing begins. Rest assured, we will share our experiences and findings in the weeks ahead, leading up to the formal road test. And hopefully, we will have better karma.

Related:
Bad Karma: Our Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid breaks down
2012 Fisker Karma - A weekend full of Karma
Five questions with Henrik Fisker, father of the $100,000 Karma plug-in hybrid

REMINDER THESE ARE YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK:

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/car-company-us-loan-builds-cars-finland/story?id=14770875#.T1qjFoEgeWg

By MATTHEW MOSK, BRIAN ROSS and RONNIE GREENE ABC NEWS and iWATCH NEWS Oct. 20, 2011 —

go.com

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 company's manufacturing jobs are still limited to the assembly of the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car in 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."

Henrik Fisker said the U.S. money has been spent on engineering and design work that stayed in the U.S., not on the 500 manufacturing jobs that went to a rural Finnish firm, Valmet Automotive.

"We're not in the business of failing; we're in the business of winning. So we make the right decision for the business," Fisker said. "That's why we went to Finland."

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.

An investigation by ABC News and the Center for Public Integrity's iWatch News found that the DOE's bet carries risks for taxpayers, has raised concern among industry observers and government auditors, and adds to questions about the way billions of dollars in loans for smart cars and green energy companies have been awarded. Fisker is more than a year behind rolling out its $97,000 luxury vehicle bankrolled in part with DOE money. While more are promised soon, just 40 of its Karma cars (below) have been manufactured and only two delivered to customers' driveways, including one to movie star Leonardo DiCaprio. Tesla's SEC filings reveal the start-up has lost money every quarter. And while its federal funding is intended to help it mass produce a new $57,400 Model S sedan, the company has no experience in a project so vast.

READ the iWATCH News Story on Tesla and Fisker

There is intense scrutiny of the decisions made by the Department of Energy as it invests billions of taxpayer dollars in alternative energy. The questions come in the wake of the administration's failed $535 million investment in solar panel maker Solyndra. The company's collapse, bankruptcy and raid by FBI agents generated a litany of questions about how the Energy Department doles out billions in highly sought after green energy seed money.

READ the Energy Department's defense of the auto loan program.

READ Fisker's response to the ABC News report.

A key question, experts and investigators say, is whether another Solyndra is in the offing.

In interviews, executives with Tesla and Fisker said comparisons to Solyndra are unfounded. Each said the government's investments will ultimately pay off by supporting a fleet of electric cars that will ease the nation's dependence on fuel and benefit the environment.

"It's absolutely a worthwhile risk," said Diarmuid O'Connell, vice president of corporate and business development for Tesla Motors. "I absolutely believe it was a good bet for American taxpayers." Tesla has said its mass production of the sedan will ultimately lead to profitability.

Henrik Fisker, the renowned auto designer who founded the car company that carries his name, said his company holds tremendous promise and has accumulated $600 million in private financing.

When asked directly by ABC News if taxpayers should worry about the more than $500 million in federal funds on the line, he was emphatic: "No, I don't think they need to worry about it," Fisker said. When asked if Fisker might be the next Solyndra, he said, "Absolutely not."

Fisker: We Didn't Want to Be Solyndra

In a lengthy interview, Fisker said he apprised the Department of Energy of his decision to assemble the high-priced Karma in Finland after he could not find an American facility that could handle the work. They signed off, he said, so long as he did not spend the federal loan money in Finland -- something he says the company has taken care to avoid. He said the decision, ultimately, was to help prevent his company from following the path of Solyndra, which exhausted nearly all of its loan money on a high-tech solar manufacturing plant in Freemont, California.

"If you just start doing like what Solyndra did, making a factory in a place where it was too expensive to manufacture … [you] obviously fail," he said.

By some key measures, Tesla is ahead of Fisker. More than 2,000 of its first electric car, the Tesla Roadster, are on the road, while Fisker is just starting to get its first car into showrooms. And Tesla is further along in advancing a second, lower-cost car, the Model S. While both firms boast of big dollar private investments, Tesla's vulnerabilities are more publicly visible through its SEC filings, in contrast to the privately held Fisker.

Chelsea Sexton, a 20-year veteran of the electric car movement and an outspoken advocate for alternative fuel vehicles, said she can plainly see the risks, even though her husband works for Tesla.

"None of us with any experience in the industry think there's any sort of guarantee they'll make it," Sexton said of Tesla. "It looks pretty good right now, they're building out their plant, things seem to be on track, so we're all encouraged. But you know, we watched GM and Chrysler go bankrupt."

Energy Department officials said such loans, by their nature, are risky because the department is financing innovative, potentially game-changing technologies that could deliver long-term benefits. They said neither firm has missed a loan payment, or sought help from the department to restructure their lending agreements.

"Two years ago, critics said we shouldn't be investing in American auto manufacturing at all because the industry wouldn't survive," said Damien LaVera, an Energy Department spokesman. "They were wrong then and they're wrong today. From well-established names like Ford to innovative startups like Tesla and Fisker, America's auto industry is being reinvented. Continuing this turnaround demands more innovation, not defeatism. While supporting innovative technologies always carries a degree of risk, these investments deliver long-term benefits."

Yet an audit this year by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, criticized the Energy Department for not keeping close enough tabs on its fleet of auto loans -- including those to Fisker and Tesla -- to ensure they meet benchmarks. The funding was issued under the $25 billion Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program, one piece of a giant umbrella of DOE loans and loan guarantees going out the door.

"DOE cannot be assured that the projects are on track to deliver the vehicles as agreed," said the GAO report examining the department's ATVM program. "It also means that U.S. taxpayers do not know whether they are getting what they paid for through the loans."

Tesla and Fisker stand in rare company in securing the ATVM loans. To date, records show, more than 95 percent of applicants are still awaiting approval or have been rejected from the loan pool.

Between them, Fisker, at $529 million, and Tesla, at $465 million, have secured nearly $1 billion to jump-start production of their cars. Combined, the companies have already drawn down more than $300 million, Federal Financing Bank records show.

Industry watchers question whether the Department of Energy had the auto industry know-how to make an informed choice, and they worry that another government-backed failure could damage the very industry the program intended to help.

"I think we'll absolutely end up having our version of Solyndra in the transport world based on the way the DOE has, and seems to still be executing its loan program without enough veteran diligence in the process," Sexton said.

The majority of the DOE funding for Fisker is earmarked for the company to develop a less costly, mass market sedan, called Project Nina. Energy officials issued the loans for a car that, even two years later, has not been publicly revealed.

"A half billion dollars for a car that no one has seen a picture of, in the Fisker Nina, was a bit more surprising to people," Sexton said.

Fisker said the mass market car Nina has been designed and built, but it remains under wraps to maintain a competitive edge.

Heavyweight Support

Standing in a shuttered General Motors plant in Wilmington, Del., Vice President Biden proclaimed that a half-billion-dollar Department of Energy loan would transform the idled site into a production line for electric cars.

"Folks, we're making a bet," Biden said on Oct. 27, 2009. "We're making a bet on the future, we're making a bet on the American people, we're making a bet on the market, we're making a bet on innovation."

The announcement that the plant would re-open followed a heavy lobbying push by Delaware politicians from both parties, who cited the news as a sign of industry's turnaround. In September 2009, Republican Rep. Mike Castle wrote directly to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, saying the Fisker proposal had "great merit," and urging Chu to give the company "careful consideration" for the loan. The governor and state politicians took turns, along with Biden, to proclaim the project to cheering blue-collar workers clad in jeans, caps and jackets. They said it would produce thousands of jobs and have cars rolling off the line by next year. Fisker said he remains convinced those jobs will come. While he has hired marketing, design and engineering teams in the U.S., the auto plant jobs in Wilmington right now number about 100.

The Department of Energy loan to Fisker closed in April 2010, and again Biden took center stage in a department statement announcing the loan. "The story of Fisker is a story of ingenuity of an American company, a commitment to innovation by the U.S. government and the perseverance of the American auto industry," said the vice president.

ABC News sent questions to the White House Monday and requested an interview with the vice president. Biden was not made available, but an official in his office said "the Office of the Vice President did not encourage the Department of Energy to choose any particular company over any other but, like others in the Administration, supported the Department's loan program and the creation of car manufacturing jobs in the United States."

Energy Department officials have been steadfast that politics never entered the picture and each project was screened by professionals and secured on the merits. And executives from Tesla and Fisker said they won government support because their projects had the best shot at success. They said the involvement of well-connected figures in their companies should not suggest they attempted to use special influence to secure the loans.

Both companies have political heavyweights behind them. One of Fisker's biggest financial supporters, records show, is the California venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The firm financially supports numerous green-tech firms, records show.

Kleiner Perkins partner John Doerr, a California billionaire who made a fortune investing in Google, hosted President Obama at a February dinner for high-tech executives at his secluded estate south of San Francisco. Doerr and Kleiner Perkins executives have contributed more than $1 million to federal political causes and campaigns over the last two decades, primarily supporting Democrats. Doerr serves on Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Doerr has not replied to interview requests since March.

Former Vice President Al Gore is another Kleiner Perkins senior partner. Gore could not be reached for comment.

"Their major venture investor is Kleiner Perkins, who has Al Gore as a partner and is certainly politically connected in general," said industry observer Sexton. "Whether that played a role or not is up to the DOE to explain."

Tesla brings political pull, as well. A former Tesla board member, Steve Westly, is an Obama bundler who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the president in 2008 and for his 2012 re-election campaign. His Westly Group was also a financial supporter of Tesla Motors until Tesla went public in 2010, and Westly continues to back the company. Westly has declined interview requests since February, but has appeared in multiple conferences, forums and TV interviews publicly praising Tesla Motors.

Tesla's founder and CEO, Elon Musk, is a hearty political contributor who has primarily backed Democrats, including Obama. According to published reports, another Tesla investor is Nick Pritzker, a donor to Obama and a cousin of Penny Pritzker, the national finance chair of Obama's 2008 campaign.

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O'Connell, the Tesla executive, said political muscle played no role in the company's award of the $465 million in loans, noting that the initial application was filed under Bush -- though landed under Obama.

'Demonstrated Track Record'

In Tesla's case, as in Fisker's, the government loan was broken into two parts.

The first chunk, for $365 million, is to finance a manufacturing facility for the Tesla Model S sedan, Tesla's lower-cost answer to its pricey Roadster.

The other $100 million funded a facility to manufacture battery packs and electric drive trains used by Teslas and other automakers, including the Smart For Two city car by Daimler. Tesla points to such partnerships - along with investments from Toyota and Panasonic - as signs that long established companies believe in its cars.

"We have a demonstrated track record on the financial side," O'Connell said, "that should give great comfort to the American taxpayer, as they think about a loan that's helped us to accelerate our business model."

Unlike Fisker, Tesla is a public company. Its SEC filings offer a more sober assessment of the obstacles it faces on the road to profitability.

Tesla has yet to turn a profit and suffered net losses in each quarter. "Since inception and through the three and six months ended June 30, 2011, we had accumulated net losses of $522.8 million," its most recent 10-K form shows.

It has no experience in high-volume manufacturing of electric cars, its filings say -- the very project it sees as the road toward profitability. Tesla said it encountered "significant delays" in launching the Roadster - and acknowledges that developing the Model S will be a more complex undertaking. The newer car is the project financed by DOE.

"We have no experience to date in high volume manufacturing of our electric vehicles," Tesla's SEC filings say. "Our future business depends in large part on our ability to execute on our plans to develop, manufacture, market and sell our planned Model S electric vehicle."

The Roadster was produced in small quantities with the body assembled by Lotus in the United Kingdom and final assembly by the company at its facility in Menlo Park, Calif. The Model S, by contrast, will have much greater volume and be manufactured in Fremont, Calif. The company said production will begin next year.

Industry observers say Tesla's grand plan to launch the Model S is fraught with challenges.

"They want to scale up production from 1,000 cars a year to 20,000 cars a year, [and] that's going to be a very hard trick for them to do," said Alex Taylor, a veteran auto industry analyst and writer. "They want to make most of their own parts; Detroit can't do that because it's too inefficient. And Tesla wants to own its own dealerships. Henry Ford tried that back in the 1920s and gave it up because it was too difficult."

O'Connell said the SEC filings present worst case scenarios. He said the company, and its major investors, believe the risk will reap rewards.

"It is a risky venture in the best heritage of some of the other great companies that have grown up in the Silicon Valley," he said. "This is a place where people propose ideas, finance those ideas, achieve milestones, attract a greater finance, and succeed along the way."

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