As one comment said, “Who saw this coming?”

Solyandra, Ener1 and now the newest addition to the Economic Reality Chopping Block. Amonix.

Today, Fast & Furious not only refers to the DOJ arming Mexican drug cartels with American guns and ammo, but now also can be safely applied to the way Obama’s New “Green” companies are falling over in waste, fraud and bankruptcy.

Even most Italian governments last longer than a “Stimulus” recipient.

From The Las Vegas Sun (Hat Tip: Human Events)

Just seven months after California-based solar power company Amonix Inc. opened its largest manufacturing plant, in North Las Vegas, the company’s contractor has laid off nearly two-thirds of its workforce.

Flextronics Industrial, the Singapore solar panel manufacturer that partnered with Amonix to staff the new $18 million, 214,000-square-foot plant, laid off about 200 of its 300-plus employees Tuesday.

Granted, only $5.9 million was given to Amonix, so it is still a bargain compared to the First Lady’s latest shopping spree.

Of more interest is that it appears that a good chunk of those laid off were not made aware that their jobs were only temporary.

The company scaled down at all levels of employment at the plant — which was hiring as recently as three months ago — from entry level assemblers, process engineers, production supervisors and quality-control techs, according to one employee who was laid off.

[…] Theodore Lewis, another employee, was working at the plant for six months before he and dozens of other employees were called into a mandatory meeting Tuesday.

“There was no excuse,” said Lewis, 34, who was never told his job was temporary. “They just said our job was done.”

And the Obama Jobs (To Overseas) Train just keeps on chugging. Right off the tracks.

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As the Obama/Biden Mirror Universe Porkulous Tour continues, you knew it would be just a matter of time until we would get another “Joe the Plumber” moment.

As Old Plugs was at a local custard shop earlier today, the following transpired. (Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin via Weasel Zippers)

[Biden] was appearing with Democrat Sen. Russ Feingold. The two were eating custard there, and when Biden approached the manager with some money and asked, “What do I owe you,” the manager just responded, “Lower our taxes and we’ll call it even.” Biden later jokingly called the manager a “smart-ass,” telling him, “Why don’t you say something nice?”

Notice that Plugs does not even know he was in a custard shop and had to be told that he was NOT in an ice cream shop. He then returns to the manager and starts being the pompous ass he has always been by getting nasty with the manager and saying, “Why don’t you say something nice?”

The RNC for once, had a good response:

Ryan Tronovitch, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, issued a statement criticizing the vice president’s visit to Wisconsin.

“Knowing Vice President Biden and Senator Feingold, it wouldn’t surprise me if they called Biden’s time behind the counter at Kopp’s Frozen Custard a job saved or created in Wisconsin.” Tronovitch said. “Biden probably decided not to take questions today because he didn’t want to fess up as to why Wisconsin has lost over 73,000 jobs since the stimulus was enacted and why the state’s unemployment rate has jumped from 7.7% to 8.2% when it was promised that the stimulus would be the savior to our economy.”

Doug Powers sums it nicely:

In the end though, the custard shop manager said that Biden “had a good personality” — a “compliment” usually reserved for a blind date that turns out to be a double-bagger. In a similar sense politically, it’s also the perfect description for the steaming pile of “stimulus” Biden’s charged with convincing us is a real looker.

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Well, it looks like That One Who Was Going To Make The Temperature Fall and Lower the Oceans has a little egg on his face when it comes to his Not-So-Midas Touch on things economic.

Caterpillar, who Obama back in Febraury was hailing as a prime example of a company that was going to benefit immediately (if not enormously) from the Porkulous Bill has just posted its 1st quarter numbers and they are about as dismal-looking as Perez Hilton wearing the latest Barney Frank creation.

Their first loss in 16 years. Good job, Obama.

Ironically enough, 16 years ago was when another young, Democrat president was just starting out and had also just signed a “stimulus” bill.

As reported in Bloomberg: (Hat-tip: Michelle Malkin)

April 21 (Bloomberg) — Caterpillar Inc., the world’s largest maker of bulldozers and excavators, posted its first quarterly net loss in 16 years and said full-year profit and sales will trail its previous forecast amid a global recession.

The first-quarter net loss of $112 million, or 19 cents a share, compares with net income of $922 million, or $1.45, a year earlier, the Peoria, Illinois-based company said in a statement today. Revenue dropped 22 percent to $9.23 billion.

“The sales decline is problematic given a relatively high fixed-cost base, which suggests weakness for some time,” said Joel Levington, director of corporate credit at New York-based Hyperion Brookfield Asset Management Inc.

Caterpillar predicted the U.S. recession in October 2007 and said today it expects the world economy to decline about 1.3 percent this year. Chief Executive Officer Jim Owens has cut more than 24,000 jobs since December and imposed shutdowns, partial workweeks and executive pay cuts to cope with the global credit crisis and longest U.S. slump in a quarter century.

The company’s shares rose at midday, after Owens said on a conference call that China’s stimulus spending may help later this year and set the stage for growth in 2010. Excluding some costs, profit was 39 cents a share, exceeding analysts’ average estimate of 5 cents a share in a Bloomberg survey.

As Yogi Berra said, “It’s deja vu all over again.”

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Well, it probably was too good to last. After the courageous and surprisingly unanimous GOP “NO” vote on the Taxpayer Extortion Act, it looks like the Political Jock Itch has returned to it’s home base. That being more useless than Helen Thomas pitching ProActiv. The chamber of the U.S. Senate. (Hat Tip: Michelle Maklin)

You know, these “moderate” types are like the seaweed monsters in the movie, “Horror at Party Beach” who went on a panty raid/rampage during a girl’s slumber party. Like Mike and the Bots said, no matter what species a creature is, they will still have the urge to panty raid. Only in this case, it is this country’s wealth and the wealth of the next two generations that are being raided. Like a coke addict with a wallet-full of stolen money, they are sucking this country’s economy right up their Stalinist noses.

So, in predictable fashion, Sen. Ben Nelson, (D)-NE is trying conjure up support for a new “Gang of 14 (Jackasses)” in order to “rescue” the “unacceptable parts” of this train wreck of a bill.

From FOXNews:

Senate Republicans and some Democrats aren’t happy that the $819 billion economic stimulus bill that the House passed Wednesday contains billions of dollars for programs that arguably won’t spark much job growth.

As a result, one moderate Democrat is looking to bring some of his colleagues together, as was done in the past on the issues of judicial appointments and energy policy, to find some common ground on how the stimulus bill might be improved, Fox has learned.

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., who famously gathered Republicans and Democrats in a so-called “Gang of 14″ to avert a shutdown of the Senate over judicial nominations, is aiming for similar bipartisanship in the stimulus debate. Nelson told FOX News he has invited a group to his office Friday to see if more can be done to create jobs in the stimulus bill — such as a major boost in funding for infrastructure projects, which appeal to many of his colleagues.

“We need to focus this on getting people back to work quickly,” Nelson said.

The “Gang of 14″ compromise in 2006 displeased many conservatives. Republicans controlled both houses of Congress at the time, and those involved in the compromise group agreed to take some of the party’s power options off the table in exchange for Democratic promises not to filibuster Bush’s judicial nominees except under “extreme circumstances.”

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a moderate who was a member of the original “Gang” and a close friend of Nelson’s from their time on the Senate Armed Services Committee, got an invite, as has Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Nelson’s energy compromise group colleague.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-ME

That must have been a misprint. She is no true Republican. She and Snowe have been the Dem’s long-term, cheap voter-hookers for years, walking the streets of the Senate, ready to drop political dress at the drop of a hat. And their pimp is McCain.

But than again, I expect nothing better from party traitors looking to dig their way into Crap Sandwich Two and digesting what they can for themselves and their liberal supporters.

“We need to focus this on getting people back to work quickly,” Nelson said.

The best way for that to happen would be for Nelson and all of his Demitburo criminals to immediately resign and promise to stay 3,000 miles away from DC for the next 3,000 bleems.

As for “infrastructure”, that is just code for laying millions on adding the brightest and shiniest toys to a government or campaign contributor’s building. For anyone who has ever driven in DC itself, it is not called the Pothole Capital for nothing. You would think after about 50 years of this “infrastructure” spending would have had those potholes filled years ago. Then again, we are crossing a) federal spending and oversight with b) the DC city government. Incompetence on the level of the Obama Cabinet.

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