GM’s jobs news is nothing more than a ruse

Great and wonderful news, right? Wrong.  Just another bogus headline from a company that is about ready for bankruptcy.  This story comes via MLive.com.

General Motors Co. and the state are expected to announce today that GM will create 2,000 new jobs in Michigan, beginning with up to 1,500 at a new information technology innovation center in Warren.

The automaker and the Governor’s Office are expected to make formal announcements later today.

It’s unclear where GM would add the other 500 jobs, but the state says the innovation center is the first of three projects the company will announce.

GM will invest $300 million combined for the three. The state said GM plans no major investment spending on the information technology center; it will be housed in an existing building undergoing renovation on the Warren Tech Center campus.

The center will hire 1,500 new employees within four years and will add to information technology employment already in Warren, Randy Mott, GM’s vice president of information technology and chief information officer, said in a Friday interview.

via GM to add 2,000 jobs in Michigan | The Detroit News | detroitnews.com.

This is where I am going to get accused of sounding like a Democrat or something worse.

This headline is the biggest stinking joke, since the election Barack Obama. These jobs above here? There are not jobs that anyone could do, you know, like me? These jobs are one that would need some serious degrees —- none of which I honestly have at all. So, these are not 2000 jobs for the public, like labor jobs; as the labor jobs are protected by the unions. These are tech jobs that will end up being filled by immigrants, legal or otherwise from foreign countries; who have the degrees to get these jobs. The rest will go to protected minorities, who happen to have those degrees as well.

I just have to ask aloud; how much of this investment, came from the taxpayers dollars that ended up bailing out this failed business? I really do not know if I really want to know the answer to that or not. However, what I will say is this here; the local Detroit media needs to stop with the dishonest headlines and get out of tank for the big three.  I mean, do not get me wrong, I want to see General Motor succeed, as their success personally affects my family, namely my Father, who retired from that company after 31 years. But, when I see dishonest headlines like this, it disgusts me. People scanning through, think GM is mass hiring workers for the plants. Which they are not, they are hiring salaried employees, that they really do not need and doing this, will most likely make them go broke again.

It is time, that the local Detroit media started telling the complete truth about the big three.

I’m Back!

Please note: When reading this, try to imagine someone speaking in a slight southern accent; like I do. It will help to make it sound funnier. 

As I told you all, I went out with my Dad today. I went with him to his retirees meeting at the UAW Local that he is a member of. It is in Southwest Detroit, where I grew up; a bit closer to downtown Detroit, than where I lived. However, because I want to continue to live in this house, I will not get into the specifics of what happened down there.

What I can tell you is this:

  • It rained. As in, it rained hard; by the time we got to the union hall, I thought we were going to have to ditch the truck and grab a canoe! My Dad was nice enough to drop me and Dad’s friend Irvin off at the door; and you should have seen me come out of that truck! I come out of that truck, like a lost cat that realized that he had wandered into the dog section of the animal pound —- around lunchtime. Yes, it was like that. Ever watch Scooby Doo? You know, when he stumbles upon a ghost and get the wits scared out of him? Yeah, like that. It came complete sound effects too, with “ooh’s eek’s and aah’s.” Oh, it was a wonderful time. I also, when I made it inside, kindly informed the people in the office that whomever was doing the rain dance, really needed to stop. Because the rain was here, in buckets!

So, finally the meeting was over. My Dad stopped at Vernor Coney Island and picked up some Coney Dogs for lunch for Him and Me and rest of the family here. So, I grabbed me a Diet Pepsi out of the fridge, came back down here to what my Mother calls my dungeon, and proceeded to devour me a couple of coney dogs and catch up on what was happening in the political world, while I was out cavorting with the organized labor movement. (Please Note: When I say cavorting, I don’t mean screwing. Hell, they were a bunch of grey-headed old people. Mostly men, and I do not swing that way, sorry. 😉 I mean hanging around them. It is an attempt at humor. Please, laugh. 😀 )

So, anyhow; I ate my dogs and fiddled around, and putted around and read a little here and little there. The next thing I know, an hour had passed and I realized that I was getting rather tired. So, I figured I would grab me a little nap; and nap I did….:

For Six Long Freaking Hours! 

I woke up, and rolled over at looked at the iPod touch and said aloud, “7 o’clock?!?!” I got up, and stumbled around; and went up stairs. Mom was fixing TV dinners. My Father, ever the funny man; greeted me with the normal greeting: “Well, Hello there, Sleeping Beauty!” I grinned, mumbled a little and went to the bathroom. Six hours of sleeping adds up to lot of urine storage. (Yes, I know, yuck. But, hey, it’s all true.)

So, there you have it. What I have done for most of the day. I hope you have enjoyed this rather funny story, as much as I have writing it. It is all true; my parents will verify it. I like going out with my Dad and his friend Irvin, I could write a book, about those two, when they get together. As well, as the funny stuff that goes on, when my Dad and his fishing friends, get together. Someday, I might write about that stuff. now, I live here, and I do not really want to get sued.

Till next time!

-Pat

 

 

 

 

Detroit’s Autorama is in town

Now here is something that makes me get a bit nostalgic:

Now that Detroit has had a month to bask in the future of what the automotive industry has to offer, the Motor City will now take a look at its past.

The 60th annual Autorama begins noon Friday and runs through Sunday at Cobo Center, One Washington Blvd. in Detroit.

Around 100,000 people are expected at the annual car event, which will feature about 1,000 exhibits with celebrities, attractions, beer and — of course — more than 700 hot rods, classic cars and customized vehicles.

via 2012 Autorama Detroit: Motor City revs up for ‘America’s greatest hot rod show’ | MLive.com

When I was a little kid, my Father and I would always head to Cobo Hall in Detroit every year to go to this show.  It was like a year religious pilgrimage for us.  Some years, like back in the 80’s, my cousins, my Mom, and her sister and hubby would trek down to the show.  Back in the 80’s stars from shows like “The Duke of Hazzard” would be there.  People like Tom Wopat, James Best — who played Roscoe P. Coltrane — were there.  What I remember the most, was the walking; we would walk that entire show, all rooms, upstairs and downstairs of that hall and look at everything.  We used to go to the auto-show as well; it was fun time.  I remember getting my picture taken in the car from the T.V. Series “Knight Rider,” You know K.I.T.T.?  I got it taken in the car from the first season and I believe the second season.  It was a Polaroid, and it cost my Dad five bucks.

My Dad, because he worked at General Motors, used to get free tickets to all of those shows.  I miss those old days; they were the “magic years” for me as a kid.  Sadly, we stopped going to those shows, mainly because it was such a pain in the rear to get down there and the walking was not easy on my Dad or me, as we both got older.  In addition, in addition, we started hearing about incidents happening at those show, shootings, robberies, and so forth, so we just quit going.  I went to an Auto Show once, by myself, back in the days when I was actually working.  I actually found a good parking spot on the roof of Cobo, I went inside, and the place was heavily crowded.  I went and looked at a few cars, fought my way through the crowd; and finally got disgusted and left.  After that, I never went back.  In addition, people were rude, and one person even hurled a racist remark at me, for simply being in his way.  Naturally, he was black and I was white; so in that City, this was considered normal.  This was, for what it might be worth, in the 1990’s.  Things changed in 10 years, I suppose.

The bottom line is this; if you do not mind crowds, rude people and want to see some nice classic cars, this is the show to see.  The cars, of course, come from an era when Detroit was on top of its automotive game.  Like good, moral women —-they just do not build them like that anymore.

 

Once again Andrew Sullivan shows that he is not a Conservative

Andrew Sullivan is Astroturfing (or is it asshole-turfing? Most likely BOTH in Sullivan’s case! DohHypnotized)   for his fellow Liberals.

Andrew Sullivan says:

welcome2insanity(2)Here’s another example. There’s a groundswell of grousing on the right about the cash-for-clunkers program, because the feds were caught off-guard by its popularity. The argument is that if the government can’t run cash-for-clunkers, how can it run healthcare?

To which one might respond: but cash-for-clunkers is one example of the government actually doing something right, helpful and popular. It’s the kind of pragmatic experimentation that FDR tried repeatedly. So you have a practical, targeted measure that seems to have helped abate a deeper recession in the auto industry, and the right is obsessed with the ideological abstraction of “government.”

What conservatives have to do, in my view, is not demonize government, but to champion limited government. If government can do tangible practical things that help everyone, while balancing its budget, it’s doing what conservatives think it should. Smart, practical initiatives that address problems that the private sector has failed at: what else is government for? The rest is ideology – and it seems to be all the Republicans have left.

Can someone tell how the Government affecting the Markets is doing something right? I mean, Ron Paul knocked out of the ballpark, when he said in his video that, while the “Cash for Clunkers” program might help those who are able to buy cars; but that it would damage the market for the poor people who buy those older so-called “Clunker” cars.

Reason Magazine’s Matt Welch weighs in:

I’m nobody’s conservative, but I’m pretty sure if I was telling conservatives how to think I wouldn’t admonish them for failing to champion limited government within two sentences of praising FDR’s pragmatism. It’s like, I dunno, lecturing the Labour Party about demonstrating their pro-union bonafides while praising Margaret Thatcher’s centrism. Sounds a bit off.

[….]

Sullivan is dead right about one thing: Cash-for-clunkers is indeed very “popular.” So is the home mortgage interest deduction, the prescription drug benefit, and any number of federal programs that siphon from the diffuse pool of tax revenue+debt and blast out concentrated benefits to the broad middle class. The standard for judging these things shouldn’t be popularity–Richard Nixon’s wage-and-price control spasm of 1971, to name one of many historical measures now widely and rightly considered asinine, was hugely popular at the time–but whether they make sense in both the short and long term.

Cash-for-clunkers amounts to a rounding error in Tim Geithner’s nose-hair at this point, which is probably why at least some liberals seem so genuinely baffled by the disproportionate criticism it has drawn. But for some of us it’s also a nearly perfect symbol of economic statism run amok. The federal government is taking from the many, giving it to the less-than-many, destroying functional cars, funneling money to an auto industry that it already largely owns (at a hefty taxpayer price tag), then taking multiple (and multiply premature) bows for rescuing the economy and the auto industry in the process.

I understand, and even appreciate, that not everyone interprets things this way. But what I don’t understand, and ultimately don’t respect, is the weird urge to react to yet another Obama administration brainfart by rounding up its opponents and putting them in a metaphorical holding pen marked “ideologically obsessed.” Particularly after eight years in which the only detectable ideology was taxcut-and-spend, and otherwise do what parties in power always do: look for creative new ways to bribe the middle class.

I happen to like that last part about bribing the middle class. Is not that the honest truth? I mean, the Republican Party does it, and so do the Democrats. Bribe the middle class for their vote. I tend to believe it happens on the left more; but honestly, both sides do it. This program is an example of that.

James Joyner weighs in as well:

Piggybacking on WSJ’s point, it strikes me that the “clunkers” aspect of this arrangement is morally dubious. Glenn Reynolds‘ 2004 Mazda RX-8 is a clunker that, were he so inclined, he would be eligible to trade to the government (indirectly) for $4500.  It would then be scrapped.  Doesn’t this remove a perfectly good used car from the market that some person of modest means could otherwise have purchased, either upgrading from an older, less reliable vehicle or none at all?  And doesn’t doing that mean the price of other used cars will increase accordingly?

Which is exactly what Ron Paul said in his video. Here is another area that this program will hurt. Auto Mechanics; these guys are the ones who keep those older cars going, thus creating a living for themselves. Which, in case the liberal socialist left have forgotten; does contribute to the economy. Which proves to the this writer, that the socialist far liberal left, in their quest to further their so-called Green agenda, which is basically a big scam, that is only going to benefit big business; they have left the most important people behind —- their constituents, that are the poor and lower middle class in this Country.

Graphic Credit: McGurk @ Ace of Spades

The begrudgingly obligatory GM goes bankrupt posting

Yes, I know about the bankruptcy of General Motors. No, I will not be commenting on it. As I have a policy, as a blogger not to comment on issues that I personally am involved in and biased towards or against.

Here’s the facts, Via Keith Hennessey:

Process

* GM’s bankruptcy filing was expected to be at 8 AM EDT in NY Southern District in Manhattan. (CNBC)
* Obama and GM CEO Fritz Henderson are scheduled to hold back-to-back press conferences beginning at noon today. (CNBC)
* They are using the same Section 363 process that Chrysler used. The new GM buys the good parts of the old GM. The old parts are liquidated. (White House fact sheet)
* “… would allow a much smaller GM to emerge from court protection in as little as 60 to 90 days.” (CNBC) (This is a guess/spin. How optimistic is it? GM is much harder than Chrysler. –kbh)
* “Al Koch, a managing director at advisory firm AlixPartners, will be appointed chief restructuring officer in charge of liquidating those GM assets” (CNBC)
* “Autos task force will stay in business – shifting to an investment manager role”(CNBC)

In “the new GM,” ownership is:

* 60% of equity goes to the U.S. Government. USG also gets $8.8B in debt and preferred stock.
* UAW’s retiree pension/health plan (the “Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association”) gets 17.5% of equity, plus:
o warrants to buy another 2.5% of equity;
o a $2.5 B note (three installments, ending in 2017); and
o $6.5 B in perpetual preferred stock (9% coupon).
* Approximately 12% of equity goes to the Canadian (and Ontario?) governments. They also get about $1.7 B in debt and preferred stock.
* Bondholders of old GM get about 10% of the equity, for giving up $27.1 B in unsecured debt. This was approved by bondholders representing 54% of unsecured debt. The other 46% are the biggest risk for the bankruptcy filing. (CNBC, WSJ)
* “Bondholders could take up to 25 percent of GM if it recovers to be worth what it was in 2004, before it began round after round of cost-cutting in what proved to be a failed bid to make up for lost sales.” (I need to understand this better.)
* Secured bondholders expect to be paid face value. (WSJ)

Governance of the new GM

* UAW’s VEBA can select one independent director, but cannot vote its shares or other governance rights(!) (White House fact sheet)
* “Canadian government will have the right to select one initial director.” (White House fact sheet)
* “The U.S. Treasury will also have the right to appoint the initial directors other than those that will be selected by the VEBA and the Canadian government.” (White House fact sheet)

GM gets about $40 B of new cash to help pay its bills during bankruptcy. This is called debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing.

* U.S. Government: $30.1 B in new debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing. (WH fact sheet, CNBC)
* Governments of Canada & Ontario: $9.5 B

NewCo / OldCo

* “Today GM is announcing its intention to close 11 facilities and idle another 3 facilities.” (White House fact sheet)
* “[GM] has not provided an update target for job cuts but had been looking to cut 21,000 factory jobs from the 54,000 UAW workers it now employs in the United States.” (CNBC)
* “While the “new GM” is expected to emerge quickly from court protection, the automaker’s shuttered plants, stranded equipment and other spurned assets would be left to liquidation in bankruptcy.” (CNBC)
* Previously announced: “closing more than a dozen factories and shedding the Pontiac, Saturn, Saab and Hummer brands.” (WSJ)
* GM will “shutter 2,600 dealers.” (WSJ)
* “The new GM will also pursue a commitment to build a new small car in an idled UAW factory.” (WH fact sheet)
* GM will shed more than $79B in debt. (WSJ)
* “GM at the last minute also found buyers for some unwanted subsidiaries, including German-based Opel, which is being acquired by a consortium led by Canadian auto-parts supplier Magna International Inc., and the Hummer brand, whose buyer remained undisclosed.”

Future

* “The U.S. Treasury does not anticipate providing any additional assistance to GM beyond this [new $30.1 B] commitment.” (White House fact sheet)
* “As a result of this restructuring, GM will lower its breakeven point to a 10 million annual car sales environment. Before the restructuring, GM’s breakeven point was in excess of 16 million annual car sales.” (White House fact sheet)
* “The administration said the goal of the restructuring was to help GM be profitable in a year when the industry sells 10 million vehicles, versus the 16 million it sold in 2007.” (CNBC)
* “GM will continue to honor consumer warranties.” (WH fact sheet)
* GM is being removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average 30 (“the Dow”), along with Citigroup. They will be replaced by Cisco and Travelers. (CNBC)

As you all can well guess; there is a great deal of sadness and a great deal of anger in this household today. I will give you all a fair warning. ANY sort of stupid or abusive or troll-like comments left in the comment section will result in your comment being deleted and your IP address being blocked from even viewing this blog. You just don’t insult my family. Period.

Others covering this story, their color codes should clue you into their political stances:

The Atlantic Business Channel, The New Republic, Above the Law, Gawker, The Stimulist, protein wisdom, Daniel W. Drezner, Wake up America, Mainstream Texas Conservative, Colorado Independent ,Gateway Pundit, The Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal, DownWithTyranny!, The Big Picture, Kausfiles, Runnin’ Scared, The Caucus, ProPublica, The Moderate Voice, Wall Street Journal, Say Anything, Wonk Room, Hot Air, USA Today, Reason, CFR.org, The BLT, RedState, Ben Smith’s Blog, The Politico, TPMCafe, Democracy in America, The New Republic, Crooks and Liars, DealBook, The Nation, Law Blog, The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room, Boston Globe, Libertarian Republican, The Foundry and Betsy’s Page

The Southern Avenger says "Partisans Make Us Less Safe"

How support for both “financial security” and “national security” reveal partisan hypocrisy and make us less safe.

Video: They're Shutting Detroit Down

In this music video, which features Mickey Rourke and Kris Kristofferson, you will see the plight of many in this area.  In this Video are actors, But the situation being portrayed in this movie, is the reality of many in this area.

How anyone can watch this, and still say to themselves, let them fail. Does not have a damned soul.

They say, politics is local; That does not even begin to cover it. 😡

Enjoy the Video:

The Southern Avenger on "The Mexican Flu"

How the news coverage of the swine flu isn’t so much indicative of any serious crisis, but the mainstream media’s corporate and government, PC sensibilities.

Updated: Communism Unleashed: The White House threatens Chrysler investors

Now this here is a bunch of Bull. My Dad’s a Union man, But, I think even any Democrat, that even has an ounce of a brain. Would think something is wrong with this.

The relevant part is around the1:30 mark: (H/T to Island Turtle)

[podcast]http://wjrpodcasts.com/podcasts/frankbeckmann/Lauria-050109.mp3[/podcast]

Lauria: Let me tell you it’s no fun standing on this side of the fence opposing the President of the United States. In fact, let me just say, people have asked me who I represent. That’s a moving target. I can tell you for sure that I represent one less investor today than I represented yesterday. One of my clients was directly threatened by the White House and in essence compelled to withdraw its opposition to the deal under the threat that the full force of the White House Press Corps would destroy its reputation if it continued to fight. That’s how hard it is to stand on this side of the fence.

Beckman: Was that Perella Weinberg?

Lauria: That was Perella Weinberg.

Now, let me be clear here; I am all for saving of jobs. But communist-style strong arm tactics, is just damned wrong. Of course, you’ve got your liberals who arm dismissing this. But folks, this is serious. What if you had a contract or an investment and it was ripped away from you? I suspect many of you would be ticked! I know I would be. Of course, our feckless Liberal media is not touching this, at all. Not that I am surprised.

If this is what the next four years is going to be like, I fear for this country. 🙁

Update: Via Jack Tapper: The White House is now denying the charges:

A leading bankruptcy attorney representing hedge funds and money managers told ABC News Saturday that Steve Rattner, the leader of the Obama administration’s Auto Industry Task Force, threatened one of the firms, an investment bank, that if it continued to oppose the administration’s Chrysler bankruptcy plan, the White House would use the White House press corps to destroy its reputation.

The White House said the story was false.

“The charge is completely untrue,” said White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton, “and there’s obviously no evidence to suggest that this happened in any way.”

I do not buy that at all, sorry. Neither does Ed Morrisey over at HotAir.com:

No evidence?  What about Lauria’s personal testimony?

Meanwhile, Tommy Christopher — who actually reports from the White House — dismisses the charge:

As far as the “threat” Lauria alleges, it sounds an awful lot like someone told his client that public opinion would not likely be favorable to people who would obstruct a fair deal to save Chrysler. That’s not a threat, it is a reality. It’s no more a “threat” than John McCain’s campaign promise to make earmarkers “famous.”

Apples and oranges.  McCain threatened to make public officials “famous” for wasting taxpayer money.  The Obama administration allegedly threatened to use the WHPC to destroy the reputations of private citizens as a punishment for not relinquishing their contractual rights for having helped float Chrysler.  There’s a huge difference between the two.

Indeed, the White House just got caught with it’s proverbial “Britches” down and now they’re spinning and denying. Kind of like the stuff that President George W. Bush used to do, but now it is on the other side. The difference is this. Had this been Bush’s White House and the person being threatened was a Environmental company? It would have been front page news. But because it is a big old mean “Rich” investor, it is a Conservative story. Oh, the irony and hypocrisy of it all.

Others:Politics Daily, Hot Air, Political Punch, , Pajamas Media, Gateway Pundit, Reason, Clayton Cramer’s BLOG, NewsBusters.org, Instapundit, Nice Deb, Founding Bloggers and BizzyBlog