Maybe it is just me. But am I the only person that see’s a alarming similarity between this video here:
….and this video here: (Content Warning)
Just sayin’
Others: Weekly Standard, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, Riehl World View, The Campaign Spot, Cold Fury
Kind of a depressing local story for me:
Video:
The Story:
Billions of dollars in government loans to prop up General Motors and Chrysler won’t be enough. The companies, which have received $17.4 billion so far, filed plans with the government more than doubling that request to a staggering total of $39 billion.
The requests, made in government-required restructuring plans filed Tuesday, were accompanied by plans for thousands more job cuts, slashing of models and brands, union concessions and the prospect of even further expense cuts.
In a dramatic acknowledgment that conditions in the U.S. auto industry have grown significantly worse in just two months, GM alone said it would cut 47,000 jobs globally by the end of the year — 19 percent of its work force. It also said it would close five more U.S. factories, although it did not identify them.
Chrysler said it will cut 3,000 more jobs and stop producing three vehicle models.
The grim reports came as the United Auto Workers union said it had reached a tentative agreement with GM, Chrysler and Ford Motor Co. on contract changes. Concessions with the union and debt-holders were a condition of the government bailout.
GM said it could need up to $30 billion from the Treasury Department, up from a previous estimate of $18 billion. That includes $13.4 billion the company has already received. The world’s largest automaker said it could run out of money by March without new funds and needs $2 billion next month and another $2.6 billion in April.
“We have a lot of work to do,” General Motors Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said. “We’re still going at this with a great sense of urgency.”
via The Associated Press: GM, Chrysler seek billions more, to cut more jobs.
I think I’ll just refrain from public commentary on this one. There’s family, my family involved here; so, I’m totally biased. I just do not think those Conservatives who opposed this money to these companies really get it. All I am going to say. Anyone that’s read this Blog, or wants to know what I think. Do a search on “Tarp Loans” and you’ll see why I feel the way that I do.
It looks like the party of Freedom is selling the American people up the river:
Nationalization, long regarded in Washington as a folly of Europeans, is gaining rapid ground among US opinion-formers. Stranger still, many of those talking about federal ownership of banks are Republicans.
Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator for North Carolina, said that many of his
colleagues, including John McCain, the defeated presidential candidate, agreed with his view that nationalisation of some banks should be “on the table”.
Mr Graham said that people across the US accepted his argument that it was untenable to keep throwing good money after bad into institutions such as Citigroup and Bank of America, which now have a lower net value than the amount of public funds they have received.
“You should not get caught up on a word [nationalisation],” he told the Financial Times in an interview. “I would argue that we cannot be ideologically a little bit pregnant. It doesn’t matter what you call it, but we can’t keep on funding these zombie banks [without gaining public control]. That’s what the Japanese did.”
Barack Obama, the president, who has tried to avoid panicking lawmakers and markets by entertaining the idea, has recently moved more towards what he calls the “Swedish model” – an approach backed strongly by Mr Graham.
via FT.com – Bank nationalisation gains ground with Republicans.
Nationalization is nothing more than Communism. We are being sold up the river. Remember this come 2010.
(H/T Drudge)
I figured this was coming:
The Story:
President Obama has not ruled out a second stimulus package, his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said on Tuesday, just before Mr. Obama signed his $787 billion recovery package into law with a statement that it would “set our economy on a firmer foundation.”
The president said he would not pretend “that today marks the end of our economic problems.”
“Nor does it constitute all of what we have to do to turn our economy around,” Mr. Obama said at the signing ceremony in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. “But today does mark the beginning of the end, the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the way of playoffs.”
Mr. Gibbs, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Denver, said, “I think the president is going to do what’s necessary to grow this economy.” While “there are no particular plans at this point for a second stimulus package,” he added, “I wouldn’t foreclose it.”
Mr. Obama began the first leg of a two-day trip, using the museum ceremony to spotlight the bill’s clean-energy provisions. The president will also visit Phoenix, where he will unveil his new housing plan on Wednesday.
After a bruising legislative battle on the stimulus bill, which drew only three supporting votes from Republicans in the Senate and none in the House, the White House is trying to recapture the debate over the economy. Mr. Obama’s message is that the bill will create or save 3.5 million jobs over the next two years.
While the bill has been criticized by conservatives as bloated with pork-barrel spending, it has also been criticized by the left as too tepid and not bold enough to jumpstart the economy. Mr. Gibbs’s remarks on the plane seemed to echo that concern.
In describing the package, the press secretary called it “a strong start towards economic viability” and “the beginning of getting our economy back on track.”
via Signing Stimulus Bill, Obama Does Not Rule Out Another – NYTimes.com.
I figured Obama would do this, sign one porkus bill into law and say, “This is not the end, but just the beginning of the pork!”
Meanwhile, the markets basically tanked, even more so than last week: (Via the New York Times)
From Hong Kong to eastern Europe to Wall Street, financial gloom was everywhere on Tuesday.
Stock markets around the world staggered lower. In New York, the Dow fell more than 3 percent, coming within sight of its worst levels since the credit crisis erupted. Financial shares were battered. And rattled investors clamored to buy rainy-day investments like gold and Treasury debt.
It was a global wave of selling spurred by rising worries about how banks, automakers — entire countries — would fare in a deepening global downturn.
“Nobody believes it’s going get better yet,” said Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at Standard & Poor’s. “Do you see that light at the end of the tunnel? Any kind of light? Right now, it’s not there yet.”
At the close, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 297.81 points or 3.7 percent to 7,552.29 points as losses in General Motors, Bank of America and American Express dragged the blue chips lower. The only Dow stock in positive territory was Wal-Mart, which rose after reporting better-than-expected profits.
“If we get substantially below 800 then look out below,” said Marc Groz, chief investment officer at Topos, a risk-advisory firm in Greenwich, Conn.
The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index slid 3.7 percent to drop below 800, which analysts said was an important trading threshold.
Investors know what this is, it is basically nationalization of our Economy, our banks, everything. They are just not going to invest money in a Government owned banking system. I believe this drop is just the beginning. Wait till it totally collapses and the world is thrust into chaos. It will be an interesting time, indeed.
From Patriot Post:
Many people are looking for financial advice during these hard economic times. Normally, however, we avoid offering advice regarding buying or selling stocks. But as President Obama prepares to sign the stimulus bill today, the market fell 250 points by noon, and we thought it best to warn investors concerning a few specific companies. Please review any holdings you might have in the following stocks:
Due to uncertain market conditions, we advise you to sit tight on your Can, hold your Water, and let go of your Gas. You may be interested to know that Northern Tissue touched a new bottom today, and millions were wiped clean.
It’s a tough market out there!
If the Bill Fits:
and a Cartoon:
This is absolutely sick and disgusting…. 😡
An American gun manufacturer has hired a professional killer to tout the merits of its weapons. What better spokesman could a company have than one who has shot and killed a young mother with her baby in her arms?
The South Dakota company’s Internet website has proudly published a letter attesting the greatness of its new sniper weapon.
“Pound-for-pound, component-for-component, dollar- for-dollar, you will not find a better rifle,” says the new spokesman for H-S Precision in Rapid City. His name is Lon Horiuchi, a government assassin who retired from the FBI in 2006. AFP called to ask him if this was also the weapon he used to blow away the face of Vicki Weaver at the remote area of Ruby Ridge in Idaho in 1992, but he did not return the calls.
On Aug. 21, 1992, U.S. marshals perpetrated a sneak attack on the mountain cabin of the Randy Weaver family in northern Idaho. When the family dog, Striker, a docile and loving golden retriever, began to bark at the agents, they shot him dead “because he was giving away our position,” one said later. Sammy Weaver, 14, saw the incident and screamed, and the agents nearly blew his arm off (the impact of which spun him around), and then zippered him through the back with a three-round blast from automatic weapons. The boy was dead before he hit the ground. His father, Randy, later told this writer that when he got to him, “his chest was blown out and his heart was like raw hamburger.”
The marshal directing the raid, Bill Degan, was also killed, maybe by his own men.
During the afternoon and night, all sorts of deceptive information was being transmitted from the scene to the FBI headquarters in Washington. The marshals, desperate after being caught in the act of breaking the law, had made up all kinds of cover-up stories—the most outrageous being that the Weaver family had them pinned down for eight hours in an all-day shootout in which Randy’s 16- and 10-year-old daughters had been holding them off with high-powered weapon fire from the windows of the cabin.
via americanfreepress.net – Gun Company Hires Mother’s Assassin. (Yes, I know what kid of books they sell, but that doesn’t take away from this story at all.)
No matter one’s opinions of what happen during the Ruby Ridge stand off or of Randy Weaver, this has to be one of the worst P.R. Disasters in modern history. Hiring a man as a spokesman for a company, who basically murdered a child and a man’s wife. Someone somewhere made a huge bad marketing decision.
Please, keep in mind, that I do know the full history behind the “American Free Press”, and sometimes the Anti-Government and Anti-Zionist tone of much of their news, but this does shine through that, very much so. I think someone needs to rethink a marketing strategy, and fast!
(H/T Freedom’s Phoenix)
Allan Keyes still does not get it, after all these years. After he was basically chased out of the Republican Party because of his outlandish behavior, he is still trying to garner some sort of spotlight.
Alan Keyes, a 2008 presidential candidate who now is a plaintiff in one of the many lawsuits seeking to verify whether Barack Obama qualifies under the U.S. Constitution’s requirements to occupy the Oval Office, says the tactics adopted by lawyers for the president confirm there is an issue for the courts to investigate.
Keyes, who was the candidate of the American Independent Party, cited a recent exchange with lawyers representing Obama in which they warned they might seek monetary penalties against those raising the question of Obama’s eligibility under the Constitution’s requirement that the president be a “natural born” citizen.
“It confirms the common sense suspicion that he won’t act forthrightly in this matter because he has something to hide,” Keyes wrote on his blog after WND reported the warning about “sanctions” was raised by Obama’s defense lawyers.
The onetime U.S. ambassador explained on his posting that those raising questions over Obama’s eligibility so far have simply been ignored by courts.
“In effect, the courts are refusing to admit plaintiffs on this matter into the courtroom, thereby denying them justice,” he wrote. “Madison wrote, ‘Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It will be pursued either until it be obtained or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.'”
via Keyes: President ‘has something to hide’ on eligibility.
From what sources tell me, the only reason Alan Keyes was ever offered a position in Reagan’s Cabinet is because Ronald Reagan felt sorry for the man. Also because Reagan wanted to make points with the Black Republicans at the time. Ever since then, Keyes has tried to garner the spotlight and has tried to make himself a so-called rightful heir to Reagan’s legacy; All the while being laughed at, by the rest of the Republican Party. One would think that this uppity fool would get the message that nobody, and I mean nobody wants this religious zealot in politics, but still he keeps on trying to get the spotlight. It is truly one of the tragic legacies of the Reagon era.
First off, as a rule, I do not get myself involved with what other people write on their Blogs. I believe in freedom of speech, Freedom of Expression and so forth.
However, this morning, I happen to come across something that caught my eye. If you’re following the headlines, there is a woman who’s a columnist at the Tennessean. Her name is Gail Kerr. She wrote a piece on some Tennessee lawmakers who are pursuing the Obama birth certificate issue.
Now let me say from the outset that I respect her opinions; I do not agree with them, at all. However, I happen to read a blog reaction to what she had written over at pirate’s cove, which is owned by a one William Teach, who’s real name is Porter Good. As I suspected, it was of the usual Conservative affair, criticize the piece and take gentle pokes at the author. However, there was a small bit in this piece that I found to be most offensive and I thought I would blog about it, and possibly inform Mr. Teach, that there are others out there that read his Blog. The offending part is underlined:
After eight years of the Left accusing Bush of everything that they don’t blame on anthropogenic global warming, and sometimes they blame both, with little to no proof, lefties, still riding high on hopeNchange, and probably the fumes from their black velvet Obama paintings, just do not like it when anyone asks for simple proof of Obama’s citizenship. Witness barking moonbat, and member of The Tennessean, Gail Kerr take on the subject of Barry’s birth certificate (and, hopefully, Jenny Craig)
The picture of the Woman in question:
Mr. Teach, let me remind you sir, that there are people in this world, who are not of perfect physical condition. As someone who is overweight and has struggled with weight gain for my entire life. I found your crass, asinine, dig towards this woman’s weight to be totally uncalled for, over the top and quite frankly immature, and most unbecoming of a Conservative Blogger. While I wholeheartely agree with you on your assessment of B. Hussein Obama, I do not believe that the personal insult of this woman’s Physical appearance was even remotely needed in the context of this discussion.
While I realize that a Blogger of any sort of integrity would ‘Man Up” and apologize, I do not expect this of teach at all. As I have observed, he has spent the good part of his Blogger career, cheerleading for George W. Bush and kissing the ass of the Podhoretz clan; so, one can only expect so much.
Update: Porter Good posts in the comments section says, verifying his true depraved nature:
And, yeah, I defended W when he deserved it, and attacked him when he deserved that, particularly on illegal immigration. As far as the Podhertz crack, that sounds vaguely anti-semetic on your part. Are you a Jew hater? Sounds like you owe me an apology. Oh, I misread your intent? Goodness!
It’s quite funny, when confronted with the truth, Neo-Con’s resort to playing the race card. Just like their Democrat counterparts. (There are those who would say that Democrats and Neo-Cons are one in the same, but that’s out of the scope of this discussion…) Identity Politics is such a tragic thing, on the left….. and the Right.
Others: The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly, At-Largely, and The Mahablog
This is a bit funny.
Democrats are growing increasingly frustrated with the brash political attacks Sen. John McCain has launched against Barack Obama in the weeks since the new president took office. No one expected the Arizona Republican to be a legislative ally for this administration. But it was widely assumed that Obama’s overtures to McCain in the weeks
after the election would dull some of the hard feelings between the two. Now, they are realizing, it has not.
“He is bitter and really angry,” Bob Shrum said of McCain in an interview on Friday. “He is angry at the press, which he thinks is unfair. He is angry at Obama and angry at the voters. He has gone from being an angry old candidate to being an angry old defeated candidate.”
Indeed, during the debate over the economic stimulus package it was McCain, as often as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who spearheaded the opposition. The Arizona Republican denounced the proposal as pure pork on the Senate floor and introduced an alternative measure comprised nearly entirely of tax cuts.
On Sunday, McCain wouldn’t let the fight die, even with the legislation through Congress. Appearing on CNN, he described the $787 billion measure as “generational theft” and said that the bill’s authors should “start over now and sit down together.”
Meanwhile, appearing on ABC’s This Week, Sen. Lindsey Graham — McCain’s chief ally in the Senate — said of the process by which the stimulus was forged: “If this is going to be bipartisanship, the country is screwed.”
via huffingtonpost.com — Dems Fed Up With McCain: “Angry Old Defeated Candidate”.
Humph… I don’t feel a bit sorry for the old bastard. When you run a terrible campaign and basically whore yourself and your running mate out to the far right, and then try and pimp yourself to the left; what do you expect? The old codger just needs to retire or preferably just drop dead, so Cindy can collect.
colleagues, including John McCain, the defeated presidential candidate, agreed with his view that nationalisation of some banks should be “on the table”.
after the election would dull some of the hard feelings between the two. Now, they are realizing, it has not.