As many of you know, I am the son of a retired General Motors worker. Ironically, I am also a Conservative. No, I am not a Republican; or even a formal Libertarian. I am someone that believes that the less Governmental interference in my life, the better. However, there is a place, where my politics ends and a genuine concern for my family begins.
I see that General Motors is going to be taking more money from the Government, and is desperately trying to salvage what is left of that company:
Quote:
General Motors Corp. will get up to $5 billion and Chrysler LLC $500 million in short-term aid, according to a 250-page government report obtained Monday by The Detroit News.
The Detroit News reported Friday that GM would get about $5 billion and Chrysler $500 million, citing an Obama administration official, which prompted a denial from the White House.
The short-term aid figures are disclosed in the report from the Treasury Department’s Inspector General on the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.
The report was obtained from a congressional source late Monday.
Meanwhile General Motors is is doing its damnedest to rid itself of waste:
General Motors Corp. has started notifying about 1,600 white-collar workers — most of whom work in southeast Michigan — that they will lose their jobs this week as the cash-strapped automaker cuts costs that could help the automaker qualify for up to $16.6 billion in additional federal aid.
The announcement was made by GM North American President Troy Clarke in an e-mail sent to employees today, spokesperson Tom Wilkinson said.
“This is part of really restructuring the company to a smaller, leaner company, one that can, as the (Obama) administration requested, be profitable on an ongoing basis,” Wilkinson said.
While this might be a good thing, there are those out there that believe that this is too little too late:
It’s ironic enough that Italy’s Fiat Auto could end up being the savior for Chrysler. After all, former Chrysler President Bob Lutz once likened Fiat to a dead bride when his old boss, Lee Iacocca, wanted the company to join up with the Italian carmaker. Now, Lutz is at General Motors until he retires in December, and Fiat may help his current employer.
Yes, the Italian carmaker is reportedly in talks with GM about forming a partnership with its European and South American businesses, says Automotive News. How ironic is that? Well, in 2000, GM bought 20% of Fiat Auto for $2.4 billion. Back then, GM was healthy and Fiat was in serious financial trouble. The Italian company was wracked by quality issues. It was so bad that GM actually paid another $2 billion a few years later just to avoid a put option that would have made GM the sole owner of Fiat. GM’s board didn’t want that kind of headache.
But now, after Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has fixed the company, he could help save Chrysler in the U.S. and GM in Europe. GM lost $1.5 billion in the Olde World last year, with its Opel and Vauxhaul brands suffering mightily with too many factories. GM is actually doing very well in Latin America, where the auto giant earned $1.3 billion last year. Fiat is pretty strong there, too, so they could make a powerful pair down there. The only catch is that Fiat doesn’t have any cash either. But the alliances will help be getting each company jointly-engineered vehicles and sharing parts.
The bottom line: Fiat is not a great carmaker by any stretch. But Chrysler and GM are in so much trouble that anyone could help at this point. Even Fiat.
Which brings me to my point; have any of you really looked at your Father? I have. I see worry in his eyes. I see worry in both my parents eyes. The questions my parents are facing, as they enter into their golden years are unfathomable, for someone my age. Will my parents lose everything that my father worked hard to obtain? We are talking 31 years worth of blood, sweat, and tears. My Father earned every damned last penny. I dare some idiot beltway type to say otherwise.
I have been a critic of the Obama Administration for much, as of late. However, I will give him credit for one thing. The President is looking out my Father. I just hope he does not throw my Father under the bus, as he has many others in his short time in the White House.
Some of you might look at this posting and call me some sort of a hypocrite. That is your right as an American.
However, if you could only see my Father’s eyes; you might just might be able to understand.
I don’t know if this qualifies as ‘insider trading’, but if you own Federal Express stocks you might want to sell, sell, sell.
As happens every few years, Washington was turned on its head and the neocons ended up back on top. The conservatives who endorsed Obama last year in hopes of seeing change in foreign policy are long forgotten. The hawks who went hoarse trying to defeat him are celebrated by liberals as the responsible faction on the Right. There was no manipulation involved, just a minor rebranding. As easily as one Kagan steps down from the stage, another rises to take his place. So PNAC becomes FPI, and the neocons become the new Obamacons.
It is official, David Axlerod just moved up another notch in the Douche Nozzle index:
Check out this video:
The Story:
Senior White House adviser David Axelrod on Sunday suggested the “Tea Party” movement is an “unhealthy” reaction to the tough economic climate facing the country.
Axelrod was asked on CBS’s “Face the Nation” about the “spreading and very public disaffection” with the president’s fiscal policies seen at the “Tea Party” rallies around the country last week.
“I think any time you have severe economic conditions there is always an element of disaffection that can mutate into something that’s unhealthy,” Axelrod said.
Axelrod appeared to backtrack when pressed on whether the movement is unhealthy.
“Well, this is a country where we value our liberties and our ability to express ourselves, and so far these are expressions,” he said.
“The thing that bewilders me is that this president just cut taxes for 95 percent of the American people,” Axelrod argued. “I think the tea bags should be directed elsewhere because he certainly understands the burden that people face.”
Democratic strategist James Carville disagreed with Axelrod on CNN’s “State of the Union” when John King asked him if it’s unhealthy for “an American to go out and hold a sign and say ‘I think my taxes are too high.'”
Oh Yeah, Obama understands alright. Obama understands that he has a socialist agenda to fulfill. Obama simply wants to impose more regulations and yes, taxes upon us, so that he can fund the empire, that has become the United States of America. As far as his stupid statement about cutting the Taxes of 95% of Americans, what about that 5%, which is made up of a bit more people than Mr. Axlerod cares to admit? You know, like small business owners who are now going to have to pay higher taxes to shoulder the burden of those who basically do not have to pay taxes? Because of this these business owners will most likely have to cut staff and remove benefits, so, that they can afford to pay those taxes.
What that will translate to, is this; higher unemployment. Because whether President Bambi Teleprompter realizes it or not, 95% of Americans are employed by small to medium businesses. Not everyone has a job at General Motors, Chrysler, or Ford. Some of us here in Michigan are just not that damn lucky. Heck, even the industry that I tried getting into, the trucking industry; is starting to feel the squeeze of the massive recession that is being brought on by the stupidity of the former and current Presidents. Less people buying products, means less truckers needed to haul those products across the country. Not only this, with the Obama hiking the taxes of the top 5% in this country, namely those who own several trucks, owners are just not able to afford the drivers anymore because of the hike in Taxes that they have to pay every month. There’s a thing called road taxes. The more you drive, the more you pay; and if you operate in more than one state, you have pay taxes in the state you operate in.
So, yeah, the agenda is really working alright, to screw every damned American in the end. Which is exactly what the Democratic Party is infamous for. So, as the title of this Blog posting says, the only thing unhealthy, is Axlerod’s brain. Unhealthy For America, Unhealthy for Freedom, and unhealthy for the working class in this country. It so bewilders me why people will accept blatant stupidity and follow it like sheep.
But, according to them, it is for the greater good. But at who’s expense? Ours, of course.
So, if you’re unemployed; like me, and you’re trying to look for a job. Good luck to you, because your wonderful socialist asshat President and his administration just made it about 50 times harder to find a damn job. 😡
President Obama endured a 50-minute diatribe from socialist Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega that lashed out at a century of what he called terroristic U.S. aggression in Central America and included a rambling denunciation of the U.S.-imposed isolation of Cuba’s Communist government.
Obama sat mostly unmoved during the speech but at times jotted notes. The speech was part of the opening ceremonies at the fifth Summit of the Americas here.
Later, at a photo opportunity with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Obama held his tongue when asked what he thought about Ortega’s speech.
“It was 50 minutes long. That’s what I thought.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ignored two questions about Ortega’s speech, instead offering lengthy praise of a cultural performance of dance and song opening the summit.
“I thought the cultural performance was fascinating,” Clinton said. Asked again about the Ortega speech, Clinton said: “To have those first class Caribbean entertainers on all on one stage and to see how much was done in such a small amount of space, I was overwhelmed.”
Is that the best that President Bambi Teleprompter can do? Seriously. Can he not form a thought of his own, without his speech writer doing it for him? The Neo-NeoCon basically said that the best position that Obama is suited for is the U.N. ambassador. Actually, I think he would be better suited as a White House shoe shine boy myself. But that’s just me. I mean, considering that the fact he has the political weight of a Harlem globetrotter. Considering what Chavez, Gordon Brown and others have said, what little credibility we do have left is being squandered by political neophyte.
Of course, when a white Conservative like me, makes little comments like that, we’re slandered as racist bigots. To be fair, the G.O.P is not much better, they also installed a Harlem Globetrotter as well; as their party’s new President. I said it before, and I’ll say it again. We lost to “That one” why put “One of those” in, as the Party leader? Just did not make any sense to me. Considering his performance here as of late, I believe the Republican Party is about thoroughly screwed for the next four to eight years. However to be fair, you cannot blame at all on President Bush, the Republican Party has been trending more Progressive since the 1960’s. The proverbial “Chickens” came home to roost after Bush won, that’s all.
Worst thing that ever happened to the Republican Party, was when they starting sucking up to the “Religious right.” This caused topics like Homosexuality and Abortion to become “Hot Button” topics, which was one of the worst mistakes they ever made. How a party can espouse the tenants of limited Government out of one corner of their mouths and then preach a doctrine of control over a woman’s and a man’s body out of the other, is very much beyond me. Which is why I will never join the Republican Party. You cannot have it both ways, you either believe in limited government or you believe in overreaching Government control, which is a byproduct of a Statist doctrine.
Further more, another horrible tragedy that occurred in the Republican Party, is the whole “Go along to get along” mentality and the whole embracing of diversity; which took place after the Neo-Conservative Jews took control of the Republican Party in the mid 1960’s away from the Old Right, which held it for years. The sad part was they used underhanded tricks and baseless lies to fulfill their agenda. By smearing great American institutions like the John Birch Society and sidelining them, they were able to pursue their Zionist agenda uninterrupted. The sick part was, they did it using one of the oldest liberal tricks in the book; by playing the race card. But their many years of control is now starting to slip away from them, because of the inane stupidity of the George W. Bush Administration, their influence and power has been greatly diminished in the Republican Party. I predict within the next four years, that the influence of the that section of the Republican Party is going to be all but irrelevant by 2012. There will be a more moderate and possibly even more Paleo-Conservative leader than will rise up and take the Republican Party back from the former fascist liberals that controlled it for so long.
I just hope, for the sake the Republican Party and for the sake of the spirit of the old right, that I am not mistaken.
The Jokes write themselves people….. Via Jack Tapper:
At President Obama’s meeting with the heads of South American countries this morning, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stood, walked over to him, and presented him with a copy of “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent” by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano.
Obama politely posed for a photograph with Chavez, shook his hand, and accepted the gift.
The book, first published in Spanish in 1971, offers a critique of the consequences of 500 years of European and U.S. colonization of Latin America.
More Hope and Change? (and Communism?)
Galeano writes that while the era of “lodes of gold” and “mountains of silver” has passed, “our region still works as a menial laborer. It continues to exist at the service of others’ needs, as a source of oil and iron, of copper and meat, of fruit and coffee, the raw materials and foods destined for rich countries which profit more from consuming them than Latin America does from producing them.”
At another point in the book, Galeano writes: “Our defeat was always implicit in the victory of others; our wealth has always generated our poverty by nourishing the prosperity of others.”
The book also criticizes the U.S. for “spreading and imposing family planning. … In Latin America it is more hygienic and effective to kill future guerillas in the womb that in the mountains or the streets.
First he shakes hands with this idiot and now he gets a book from a Communist, that basically insults America and our values system, and basically capitalism in general; and he takes it and smiles. The book, from what I have read is basically a book full of Anti American sentiment and is filled with marxist rantings. In fact, the book, when it was first published, was banned in Uruguay and Chile. What does that tell you?
I tell ya folks, this President is going to give we Conservatives material to write with for many years to come. That is, if Obama and his marxist do not shut down blogs altogether for fear of his Administration being criticized.
I guess President Bambi Teleprompter will have to change his script again:
There’s no dispute that thousands of handguns, military style rifles and other firearms are purchased in the U.S. and end up in the hands of Mexican criminals each year. It’s relatively easy to buy such guns legally in Texas and other border states and to smuggle them across.
But is it true as President Obama said, that “More than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States?” No, it’s not.
The figure represents only the percentage of crime guns that have been submitted by Mexican officials and traced by U.S. officials. We can find no hard data on the total number of guns actually “recovered in Mexico,” but U.S. and Mexican officials both say that Mexico recovers more guns than it submits for tracing. Therefore, the percentage of guns “recovered” and traced to U.S. sources necessarily is less than 90 percent.
Furthermore, the 90 percent figure is based on a badly biased sample of all Mexican crime guns. Law enforcement officials say Mexico asks the U.S. to trace only those guns with serial numbers or other markings that indicate they are likely to have come though the U.S.
Fox News has put the percentage at only 17 percent, but we find that to be based on a mistaken assumption that throws its figure way off. We can’t offer a precise calculation because we know of no hard information on the total number of guns Mexican officials have recovered. But if a rough figure given by Mexico’s attorney general is accurate, then the actual percentage of all Mexican crime guns traced to U.S. sources is probably less than half what the president claims, and more than double what Fox news has reported.
Leave it to a group of people, who actually have held position, say longer than a year; unlike our feckless President, to poke a huge hole in the Liberal MeMe that all the guns in Mexico and are coming from America. Interestingly enough, Fox News got disproved as well. Considering who owns them, I am not surprised at all. The truth of the matter is, and no one will say this; but I will. Most of those guns are coming Russia’s black market, and then are being shipped down through Mexico’s open borders.
So, it looks like the Liberal Democrats are going to have to find someone else to blame for Mexico’s gun problem and not us “Right Wing Extremists”, that the DHS just loves talking about. 😀
I think this says it all right here folks, this one via Fox News:
President Obama shook hands with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez on Friday at the opening of the Summit of the Americas being held this weekend in Trinidad and Tobago.
Photos released by the Venezuelan government show Obama clasping Chavez’s hand and smiling broadly, and Venezuela
Hope and Change?!?!
quoted Chavez as saying, “I’d like to be your friend,” while noting that he shook President Bush’s hand eight years ago with the same hand. Obama reportedly expressed thanks.
A senior White House official said the encounter came before the summit’s opening ceremonies during a meeting with the heads of state. Obama talked to many of the 25 or so leaders who were there at the time. At one point, he walked across the room and introduced himself to Chavez.
The official wouldn’t directly confirm Venezuela’s version of the encounter but didn’t dispute it. Chavez spoke in English, the official said.
Earlier Friday, Dan Restrepo, the president’s top Western Hemisphere adviser on the National Security Council, had told FOX News Obama might cross paths with Chavez.
“A chance encounter if it occurs,” Restrepo said, in describing such a meeting. “Let’s put the animosities behind us. Let’s not have old arguments.
“Let’s not have tired ideological arguments. Let’s get down to figuring out how we can advance things that are in our national interest. Things that matter to the United States that should matter to Venezuela. Putting the arguments and ideologies of the past aside and working on pragmatic solutions to real problems that face our countries today,” he said.
As far as I am concerned, he may as well been shaking hands with Karl Marx. It is the same thing. Chavez is a known Communist, and Obama is a known Socialist. You are who you hang around. Two birds flock together. We were warned in the election that Barack Obama was nothing more than a radical left candidate and now, he’s proven it. On top of this, he is wanting to basically normalize relations with Cuba; a known Communist country as well.
What’s next, an ambassador to Al-Qaeda in Washington D.C.? I mean, you laugh or scoff at my words? But when does the slippery slope end? When do we say, enough is enough? How can someone; who has been charged with upholding and defending our Constitution, make allies with people like this? America is about to learn a cold, hard lesson, of why you do not elect people, based upon a personality.
Honestly. I am totally at a loss. It is just that I am so conflicted about the issue, that I really don’t know what to say. On one hand, I like the idea of keeping America safe, on the other, the idea of torture makes me sick.
The Obama administration has declassified and released opinions of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) given in 2005 and earlier that analyze the legality of interrogation techniques authorized for use by the CIA. Those techniques were applied only when expressly permitted by the director, and are described in these opinions in detail, along with their limits and the safeguards applied to them.
The release of these opinions was unnecessary as a legal matter, and is unsound as a matter of policy. Its effect will be to invite the kind of institutional timidity and fear of recrimination that weakened intelligence gathering in the past, and that we came sorely to regret on Sept. 11, 2001.
Proponents of the release have argued that the techniques have been abandoned and thus there is no point in keeping them secret any longer; that they were in any event ineffective; that their disclosure was somehow legally compelled; and that they cost us more in the coin of world opinion than they were worth. None of these claims survives scrutiny.
Soon after he was sworn in, President Barack Obama signed an executive order that suspended use of these techniques and confined not only the military but all U.S. agencies — including the CIA — to the interrogation limits set in the Army Field Manual. This suspension was accompanied by a commitment to further study the interrogation program, and government personnel were cautioned that they could no longer rely on earlier opinions of the OLC.
Although evidence shows that the Army Field Manual, which is available online, is already used by al Qaeda for training purposes, it was certainly the president’s right to suspend use of any technique. However, public disclosure of the OLC opinions, and thus of the techniques themselves, assures that terrorists are now aware of the absolute limit of what the U.S. government could do to extract information from them, and can supplement their training accordingly and thus diminish the effectiveness of these techniques as they have the ones in the Army Field Manual.
Moreover, disclosure of the details of the program pre-empts the study of the president’s task force and assures that the suspension imposed by the president’s executive order is effectively permanent. There would be little point in the president authorizing measures whose nature and precise limits have already been disclosed in detail to those whose resolve we hope to overcome. This conflicts with the sworn promise of the current director of the CIA, Leon Panetta, who testified in aid of securing Senate confirmation that if he thought he needed additional authority to conduct interrogation to get necessary information, he would seek it from the president. By allowing this disclosure, President Obama has tied not only his own hands but also the hands of any future administration faced with the prospect of attack.
Disclosure of the techniques is likely to be met by faux outrage, and is perfectly packaged for media consumption. It will also incur the utter contempt of our enemies. Somehow, it seems unlikely that the people who beheaded Nicholas Berg and Daniel Pearl, and have tortured and slain other American captives, are likely to be shamed into giving up violence by the news that the U.S. will no longer interrupt the sleep cycle of captured terrorists even to help elicit intelligence that could save the lives of its citizens.
Now, you all know that I was not a big fan of Bush Administration. But I cannot help but wonder, if the Obama Administration did pull a major bonehead move here. One thing that is the source of the authority of the right to enhanced interrogation is, that these Terrorists are not subject to the Geneva Conventions. That being because they are not uniform combatants. While I might agree with that sentiment on a legal or a technical level, on a human and or diplomatic level that argument runs into bunch of problems. You see subjecting persons from countries where you are also importing oil from, to torture, does not do much for your Country diplomatically. The problem is, those who argue against the diplomatical arguement, come off sound like a bunch of Isolationists.
So, I am really not sure, did Obama screw the Country? You tell me? I’m open to opinions, as long as you don’t act like a troll.
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