President Obama

A reply by stimulus recipient ($115 million of a $249 million grant paid out) A123 Systems to an inquiry by Republican Sens. Charles Grassley (Iowa) and John Thune (S.D.) showed the electric vehicle battery manufacturer received nearly $1 million in Recovery Act funds on the day it declared bankruptcy.

The money flow is not likely to stop.

A123 as a whole, or in pieces, is going to be sold to the court-approved buyer(s). That is likely to be either Johnson Controls, which is the lead bidder for the company’s automotive business, or Wanxiang Group, which wants to buy the whole company. A123 had an agreement to transfer up to 80 percent of the company’s ownership to the China-based automotive parts manufacturer over the summer, but its bankruptcy filing on Oct. 16 – with Johnson Controls as the new automotive assets purchaser – nullified its agreement with Wanxiang.

President Obama’s penchant for flushing taxpayer money down the green energy toilet lives at least another four years, and his crony supporters continue to benefit.

The latest example is the pending sell-off of assets by bankrupt A123 Systems, which was awarded upward of $279 million in stimulus funds, plus other assorted government grants and contracts. The top executives who presided over its failure – and supported the president’s cap-and-tax initiatives early in his term – are likely to receive millions of dollars in bonuses, thanks to their scheming earlier this year and a bankruptcy court judge.

Now that the election season is coming to an end, we may get a clearer picture in the near future as to just how "healthy" the auto industry really is. Another car company has just filed for bankruptcy as American Suzuki announced that it is filing for chapter 11 protection and will no longer be selling vehicles in America.

We’ve already seen Fisker Karmas spontaneously ignite in a Texas garage and a supermarket parking lot in California, which were blamed on isolated incidents.

But now the taxpayer-subsidized ($193 million) electric automaker has seen several of its $102,000+ luxury hybrids go up in smoke all at once, thanks to Hurricane Sandy.

Jalopnik.com reported Tuesday night that approximately 16 of the Karmas that were parked in Port Newark, N.J. Monday night as Hurricane Sandy approached were submerged by the storm surge. According to the Web site’s unidentified source, the vehicles then “caught fire” and “exploded.” Jalopnik has exclusive photos of the Karmas in which they all were thoroughly destroyed by what must have been an intense inferno.