As Drew notes below, the electric-car company backed by Al Gore and Kleiner Perkins (Obama economic advisor John Doerr’s outfit, also boasting Gore) is getting a boatload of taxpayer money to develop an electric car for the super wealthy so they can go without anti-automobility restrictions in a carbon-constrained world.

It’s called the “Karma,” natch (question, how do you style a model year for such a vehicle promising future recompense for present behavior? Just asking.). How precious. Precisely what the taxpayer intends when signing up for automatic payroll deduction of his wages, no doubt.