Arkansas Blog

So I don't get it. If Ford or GM go under, it isn't like the US is going to quit driving cars. Those US plants that Arkansas has been pandering to land will gear up to take over the market.

Braniif, TWA, Eastern --- you can still get on a plane with someone.

And that's just where they should go.

They continued to make Tahoes and Excursions when it was clear that they should be making fuel efficient cars. They've spent MILLIONS lobbying to keep fuel standards ridiculously low. They've spent the last twenty years running their business the way GWB ran our country, and now they're surprised at the outcome. LET THEM FAIL. If they were making something worth buying, they wouldn't be in this place.

A new industry will rise up to replace them. If it doesn't a new country will rise up to replace us.

Romney is dead right on that too. The only thing a Detroit bailout will accomplish is to delay the inevitable, maybe even by only a few months. If the federal government continue to reward failure for the big three, do you seriously believe they will ever change their business model?

camels don't need gas anyway.

The party that speaks to God and to whom God speaks uniquely is leaving the nation in a hell of a mess.

For Kathleen Parker's take on the mess (yes, that conservative columnist), see blue link.

Quote:

"Suffice it to say, the Republican Party is largely comprised of white, married Christians. Anyone watching the two conventions last summer can't have missed the stark differences: One party was brimming with energy, youth and diversity; the other felt like an annual Depends sales meeting."

Time for the Depends to go so that some of the new energy can have a crack at fixing things. Maybe all that energy talking to God and being talked to by God siphoned off some creative intellectual energy needed fo keep the country running.

I could punch old Mormon Mitt right in the nose for his compassion-less piece in the NY Times today. FK him and his magic underwear. Throw the old workers under the bus and FK the greedy union-joining current workers. How dare you want pensions and health care, you ungrateful MotherFK'ers!

This is 100% about killing a unionized industry. This is all about returning the American worker to the levels of those currently making a lot of our shit in Thailand. FK You Mitt....I don't want to live in a grass hut. FK his old daddy George Romney too! What a great job he did turning around American Motors. How many of you drive a Rambler today?

We must remember Mitt made half a billion scooping up failing businesses. I'd say from today's comments he's got a Ford in his future.......like buying the whole company when it is allowed to crash to the ground. He's like a guy I know in Fort Smith who flew to Kansas back in the 70s to see about buying a pristine original condition, low mileage, 1957 Corvette. He came back and told me the owner had cancer and he was going to wait 2 weeks when the guy was sicker and then go back and see if he could get the car for a lot less. He'd already FK'ed up and told me the car was a bargain.

So let's just wait for the cancer to eat this husband and father a little closer to the grave and then drive a really hard bargain. I'm pretty damn sure the guy I know got the Corvette and sold it at a big profit. I'm also sure he voted Republican 2 weeks ago. Goddamn him and everything he stands for!

And shame on all of you for buying foreign cars the last 20 years. Put that magnetic yellow ribbon on your Hyundai and then tell me what's wrong with the American car industry. Go ahead and shut down all the factories in the US. We'll be starving to death when the next big war comes....we won't have any factories to convert to the war effort, and we won't have any skilled workers and China will walk right in and start killing your female children and we'll only have ourselves to blame.

Go on....drive your Honda to Wal-Mart and buy a few baskets full and cut off a Buick as you drive back home. I am not a flag waving only buy American asshole......but there is a line that shouldn't be crossed and we're zooming past it as I type. FK Mitt Romney!

I see Washington Post asks users to sign in. I'm posting the url in a post, in hopes it will take AR Times readers there directly:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/18/AR2008111802886.html?nav=hcmodule

I agree with Petronius. Reminds me of a slogan I heard recently - Innovate or Die. They need to fail and let something worth a damn rise up in their place.

And after reading this story from ABC news I say let 'em burn. (see clicky name for full article)

Big Three CEOs Flew Private Jets to Plead for Public Funds
Auto Industry Close to Bankruptcy But They Get Pricey Perk
By BRIAN ROSS and JOSEPH RHEE
November 19, 2008-

The CEOs of the big three automakers flew to the nation's capital yesterday in private luxurious jets to make their case to Washington that the auto industry is running out of cash and needs $25 billion in taxpayer money to avoid bankruptcy. ..

The CEOs of GM, Ford and Chrysler may have told Congress that they will likely go out of business without a bailout yet that has not stopped them from traveling in style, not even First Class is good enough.

...All three CEOs - Rick Wagoner of GM, Alan Mulally of Ford, and Robert Nardelli of Chrysler - exercised their perks Tuesday by flying in corporate jets to DC. Wagoner flew in GM's $36 million luxury aircraft to tell members of Congress that the company is burning through cash, asking for $10-12 billion for GM alone.

...Wagoner's private jet trip to Washington cost his ailing company an estimated $20,000 roundtrip. In comparison, seats on Northwest Airlines flight 2364 from Detroit to Washington were going online for $288 coach and $837 first class.

Plants Closed, Company Jets Stay
Mulally made his case Tuesday before the committee saying he's cut expenses, laid-off workers and closed 17 plants.

"We have also reduced our work force by 51,000 employees in the past three years," Mulally said.

Yet Ford continues to operate a fleet of eight private jets for its executives. Just Tuesday, one jet was taking Ford brass to Los Angeles, another on a trip to Nebraska, and of course Mulally needed to fly to Washington to testify. He did not address questions following the hearing.

If your giving $700 B to the financials, then I don't see why you can't give a $25 B LOAN to the Auto Industry. There are a lot of jobs at stake here with folks without Golden Parachutes. Include it in the approved $700 B.

Mayhaps I am in the minority, but I think something is very wrong if we can bailout Wall Street but not Main Street. Who needs help more: the millionaires or the little guy? I only have a year of econ under my belt, but... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

Thanks EasyB. The Big Three are requesting a L-O-A-N, not a bail-out.

We did it before with Chrysler. The gov made money on it.

What's at stake with Mormon Mitt's proclamation and the good Senator from Ala

are what they nicely call "legacy costs" meaning pension plans that are unfunded.

Bankruptcy would wipe out pension plans. Republicans like that. Rejoice in wiping out
such plans. Please don't join them.

What kept the demand for gas-guzzling SUVs high was Cheney's fast write-off tax rules and
tax credits that made it so affordable to buy big vehicles.
Then Bush war rules collided and ran up gas prices.

Don't forget the other hot shots have gone to making gas guzzlers too. Who will eat those?

Write Pryor and Lincoln today and encourage them to support our domestic auto makers.
.

A bailout will come. There are too many votes in 2010 and 2012 at stake.

Muddling, you can get to the Kathleen Parker column more easily at townhall.com. Clicky.

this is not about political partys, economics, or racism, since 9/11 people, all people, all america's should wake up. this is the straw that breaks the camels back......

By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF and LEE KEATH, Associated Press Writers

CAIRO,Egypt - Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri insulted Barack Obama in the terror group's first reaction to his election, calling him a demeaning racial term implying that the president-elect is a black American who does the bidding of whites.

The message appeared chiefly aimed at persuading Muslims and Arabs that Obama does not represent a change in U.S. policies. Al-Zawahri said in the message, which appeared on militant Web sites Wednesday, that Obama is "the direct opposite of honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X, the 1960s African-American rights leader.

Al-Zawahri also called Obama - along with secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice - "house negroes."

Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses the term "abeed al-beit," which literally translates as "house slaves." But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as "house negroes."

The message also includes old footage of speeches by Malcolm X in which he explains the term, saying black slaves who worked in their white masters' house were more servile than those who worked in the fields. Malcolm X used the term to criticize black leaders he accused of not standing up to whites.

The 11-minute 23-second video features the audio message by al-Zawahri, who appears only in a still image, along with other images, including one of Obama wearing a Jewish skullcap as he meets with Jewish leaders. In his speech, al-Zawahri refers to a Nov. 5 U.S. airstrike attack in Afghanistan, meaning the video was made after that date.

Al-Zawahri said Obama's election has not changed American policies he said are aimed at oppressing Muslims and others.

"America has put on a new face, but its heart full of hate, mind drowning in greed, and spirit which spreads evil, murder, repression and despotism continue to be the same as always," the deputy of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden said.

He said Obama's plan to shift troops to Afghanistan is doomed to failure, because Afghans will resist.

"Be aware that the dogs of Afghanistan have found the flesh of your soldiers to be delicious, so send thousands after thousands to them," he said.

Al-Zawahri did not threaten specific attacks, but warned Obama that he was "facing a Jihadi (holy war) awakening and renaissance which is shaking the pillars of the entire Islamic world; and this is the fact which you and your government and country refuse to recognize and pretend not to see."

He said Obama's victory showed Americans acknowledged that President George W. Bush's policies were a failure and that the result was an "admission of defeat in Iraq."

But Obama's professions of support for Israel during the election campaign "confirmed to the Ummah (Islamic world) that you have chosen a stance of hostility to Islam and Muslims," al-Zawahri said.

The bailouts have worked so well, right?

>>The bailouts have worked so well, right?

Who can say? No one really knows what's been done which is usual for Bush's bunch.

"I have no reason to explain what I do." George W. Bush, 2003

I keep hearing 'preventing the big credit sources from going under.' But some of them have

gone under.

No one knows who got what in terms of public money. Not even Congress knows yet.

It was another dumb Demo mistake...giving Bush a blank check..

I heard on NPR a few days ago that 45,000 jobs have been lost on Wall Street. That's bad, but just a drop in the bucket if our auto industry goes down the tubes. I also heard the Federal government made 150 million, which used to be big money, off the Chrysler bail-out which was paid years in advance thanks to those of you who ran out and bought those little K cars.

I like American cars and I like American workers. No one likes the big shots that fly around in private luxury jets....but you can damn well bet the Chevy workers weren't asked if they thought the big dogs needed a new jet. If this goes thru and the Republicans let the car companies die or force them into bankruptcy, old Jerry Cox will have to come up with Initiated Act 2 to prevent gay couples from adopting old starving Ford workers who will no doubt head south seeking heat for their aching old bones.

Think! Don't so readily join the bad guys on this one.

BEGICH wins Alaska, Stevens concedes Defeat.

I don't understand the lack of innovation in American car manufacturers over the last thirty years (why they killed the electric car over 20 years ago?)... but I do know their is a lot in the pipeline and on the way to a dealership near you very soon.I f we bail um out this time (of course we should if we demand a good deal).. we must get a seat at the table and we must demand efficiency/standards.

Mitt Romney got rich largely through disaster capitalism. It's time America toss the likes of Mitt (and their are many) straight into the nearest sewage treatment facility.

We need to embrace socially sound, energy smart and imaginative capitalism... and we need to do it fast.

All of this is also (i hate that word now) an additional reason to go all the way and enact universal / single payer health care.

The fascist government (King George, Prince Paulson) can't tell us WTF he did with how much of the $700B, and the Big 3 CEO's can't tell us what they'll do with their loan/rescue/bailout, how much they'll REALLY need, by when, for how long...it's like Cardinal Yastremski's miracle - he made a blind man walk!!!

Bankruptcy calleth AND I get you, DBI. There is plenty to suggest that the R's just want to bury the UAW. I repeat I'm basically for Thomas Friedman's "conditions" on ANY government funding - DITCH the entire boards & management structures and make MI legislators recuse on ANY solution-seeking vote. Much of the posts above, whether for or against are fact-based. Leaving us (taxpayers) where? WIth the distinct likelihood that any "loan-based" rescue will end up in Bankruptcy anyway (unlike Chrysler back when) and IF we get a return it'll be pennies on the dollar.

It's a rough conundrum AND the auto industry management did it to their workers, investors, and ALL of us if there is a rescue, and will skate on down to Belize/Costa Rica in retirement splendor regardless. If they were Japanese, they would already have done the hari-kiri - what they DESERVE! I'm sorry DBI, but my wife is still driving her '94 Subaru to work every day - 380,000+ miles and no end in sight - with only minimal repairs. Detroit has been building crap for YEARS, and.......... it's already been said, above.
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"It was another dumb Demo mistake...giving Bush a blank check.." ---eLwood

That is ALL they've done since they've been "in control" the last 2 years - BAIL on everything, even when they had a winning hand. O'Bama has got some SERIOUS Dem ass-kicking to do to wake the corpses up... AND all pundits saying "Pelosi, not Obama, has all the power." YIKES.
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"the question is not what you look at, but what you see." - henry david thoreau

How will bailing them out save them for the long term? What will change with the big three? They will have the same management that got them in the mess to begin with.

They will have new blood in the White House and a Democratically controlled Congress not so inclined to ship our jobs off and reward only that lucky 1%. Another good place to start digging is the Big 3's relationship with Big Oil. Whose leading who? Who benefits most from gas guzzlers?

Is the White House going to run GM? If that is true GM is in even more trouble. The management of GM is pretty bad but having a bureaucrat running it is scary.

Mitt Romney has provided the blueprint for a viable Detroit with long term job security. Hard choices and sacrifices are a necessary part of turning around the car companies. Bailing out the Big 3 with no radical reforms will only prolong the eventual failure. A turnaround will take sacrifices from both labor and management, and Romney was very balanced in his critique.

The height of arrogance, three lavish corporate jets all heading from Detroit to D.C. to ask for a handout... but I wonder if any of those aircraft were produced here in the LR area by Falcon Jet or Hawker/Raytheon?