Al Gore runs mouth, New promises of disaster

As if Al Gore isn't now a bad enough joke, the former Vice President and leading contender for dolt of the year was in Germany explaining to the mind numbed that the Polar Ice Caps would be completely gone in five years. 

I wish I was joking. Talk about scaremongering. Al, Mr. Former Vice President who couldn't manage to win his own state in the election of 2000. Are you out of your ever loving mind? 

Six hundred and fifty scientists just signed a document saying that Man Made Global Warming was a lie, and the UN Climate Panic Panel was absolutely wrong. The UN had 52 Scientists, the opponents have 650. I thought the consensus of opinion was what mattered, now it's only if they agree with the rapidly shrinking minority? Mr. Former Vice President, the only thing shrinking is the number of people who think you know what you are talking about.

Time for a little truth on Card Checks.

The UAW is mighty pissed at the Republicans, and especially Republican Senator Corker after the Bridge to Nowhere bailout bill for the Big three failed to pass the Senate. 

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger is out to demonize Sen. Bob Corker after the Republican senator played in instrumental role in blocking the $14 billion bailout for automakers last night.

One of the sticking points, was the announced and proclaimed plan to institute Card Check elections instead of secret ballots, which we all know is the standard for a fair and true election.

In short, Card Checks mean that the strong arm tactics of yesteryear, the bad old days of the extremely corrupt Unions, instead of the moderately corrupt unions of today, are back. Here's the scene. Two or three people corner you, and tell you that you need to sign the card to show your solidarity with the brothers in the Union. Hello, this intimidation works on some, and when it made the rounds of a place I worked at, it didn't work on me. Not because I'm a hero or anything stupid like that. Because I knew the wannabe tough guys, and knew they were playing the part, they weren't stupid enough to try and do anything for real, they were being watched by Management all ready, anything happened, and they would be blamed. They would be guilty until proven innocent, and they knew that. 

Ok, as I've said before, I'm also a former Soldier, and Paratrooper, and frankly, I'm not scared by wannabe tough guys. That aside, the idea of violence didn't really spend much time in my head, I honestly didn't see it going that far. However, many people who were not in favor of the union, did sign the cards indicating support for it. They did so to get along, go along, and to end the intimidation that made life uncomfortable. Most people don't want to stand out of the crowd, and tell a group of people that they disagree with them. The Card check is nothing more than Racketeering. It uses intimidation and pressure to get the people in line, and in the bad old days was backed up by literal enforcers, who would throw a beating on someone who stepped out of line with the Unions. Those days while they're more or less gone, threaten to return, with the embracement of Card Check organizing by the Democrats. 

The Unions are obsolete, much like most of what comes out of Congress these days, obsolete rhetoric and wastefulness. The only reason that the Unions want the Card Check, is because they keep losing the secret ballot elections. So much like the Democrats, they can't win honestly, and fairly, so they now want legislation allowing them to intimidate people into joining the unions. This is not the change I hoped for, how about you? 

Morning After Recriminations, the Auto Bailout

The elite and moderates are moaning this morning, over the failure of the Senate to pass the Bridge Bailout for the Automakers. Of course, to do this, they ignore things like logic, common sense, even a basic understanding of how economics works, and what the true goal of the bailout was. They do belatedly admit, that the bailout, was a temporary measure, until the Democrats take over the White House, and increase their majorities in the House and Senate, and they can pass a much larger more long term bailout, that would keep the Automakers going a lot longer.

Let’s be clear. The rescue plan passed by the House this week won’t fix the ailing automakers that are hemorrhaging cash as sales plummet. But allowing one or more of these companies to collapse into bankruptcy proceedings could potentially cause the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs and even greater economic havoc.

Furthermore, if the Detroit carmakers are going to survive, they will have to completely overhaul the way they do business — and start building cars that people will buy. For that, they are going to need new leadership, a rational assessment of their long record of failure and, yes, a much larger infusion of government cash. 

Here's an idea, let the Detroit automakers produce cars that people want, instead of legislating to them what they have to produce under the CAFE standards. As I pointed out in the previous post, Bankruptcy is the only legal action that allows all the things that the pundits swear that Detroit Automakers need, legally. 

For example, let's say that Chevrolet feels that they have too many dealerships in California. Unless they grant the Car Czar the power to waive state franchise laws in California, unlikely with Pelosi as House Speaker, there is no way that Chevrolet can shut them down under the bailout. Yet, under Bankruptcy laws, those same dealerships that are impossible to shut down right now, would be very easy to shut down, and reduce the Company to profitability. 

The same things that the UAW was unwilling to promise to give up to get the Bailout, can be taken from them by a Federal Bankruptcy Judge without any review from Congress, or a Car Czar. 

Now, does anyone remember the United Airlines Bankruptcy from 2005? Anyone? The Communists supporters of Obama known as Workers.org do. I know, it's probably not polite to laugh at the Communists who still cling to outmoded and demonstrably false beliefs, but it is rather fun. I'd cut and paste part of their tirade, but really, what part could I snip to show how out of touch they are. If you're unwilling to follow the link, let me summarize. 

The workers are what make companies function, and it's the workers who should be in control. 

The Unions were and are in control. They demand more money, for less work. Thus the company is left with a product that costs too much, and does too little. Hello, why would anyone buy one of those?

Four years ago, I bought a new minivan. I shopped around, compared vehicles, reviewed information on the internet. I searched for information for six weeks. I decided on the Kia Sedona minivan. Here's why. The car I got cost roughly half what the Ford product would have cost, with similar options, power seats, windows, etc. The Ford Product had a 3 year 36,000 mile warranty, while the Kia had a ten year 100,000 mile warranty. Are we seeing a trend yet?

So by purchasing the Kia, with my own hard earned dollars, I got more for my money, a purely capitalist ideal I'm sure, than I would have buying the Dodge, GM, Chevy, or Ford product. Being a rational, reasonably intelligent person, I couldn't figure out why I should or would pay twice as much, to get half as much, in a car. I asked some people, and the American Car buffs suggested that I should support American Jobs. 

OK, so I looked at the Kia again, and found much to my surprise, that when it's imported to the United States, a Pilot goes to the ship, and brings it to the Dock. This docking Pilot, is an American, and a Union member. The tugboat crews are similarly American. The people who unload the ship, are members of the ILA, UNION, as are the clerks that check the vehicles in. Most of the travel trailers driving to the dealers are Union drivers too. Lot's of American jobs right there, not counting the Dealership employees who prepare the car for sale, maintain it, sell it, and administer the paperwork to note the transfer of the vehicle. Why it looks like I may have for a short time, employed as many as sixty people all told, and that's just the Americans, in buying my car. 

Value is a lost art to American workers. The reason Walmart is so big, and successful, is they offer the shopper value for the dollar. More, not less, for the money. The UAW has forgotten that the reason they got where they were, was at one time they were the only game in town. However, Capitalist society means that someone is going to see an opportunity, and come in and produce a better product, and do so more cheaply, than you are if you're not careful. 

As we watch the pundits cry and gnash their teeth over the pain the UAW is probably going to have to endure, let's see who is starting an American Car Company, with a plan, and a good product idea. 

Creating a Police Car, from the ground up, to meet the needs of the consumer, the Police Departments, probably cheaper, and better, than the current trend. Wow, what an idea. Police officers driving cars that do the job better, than what they currently have. I'm sure Congress will step in immediately and demand that the company start producing hybrids or some other nonsense. 

If you want to save the Big Three, tell Washington to get the hell out of the Car Business, they don't have a clue what they're doing anyway. 

Auto Bailout dies in the Senate.

Thankfully, enough Republicans appear to have decided that bailing out the UAW was a bad deal, and they managed to keep the bailout bill from coming to a vote. 

Conservatives around the net are all breathing a sigh of relief at this moment. The idea of creating a Car Czar is insane. The position of Car Czar that Washington wanted to create already exists. It's called a Bankruptcy Judge, and get this, he already has the power to do everything the Big 3 Automakers said they needed. 

So long Big Three, here's the deal. Go to the court, file for Bankruptcy, and get this, you can talk the Judge into giving you all the restructuring support you need. In fact, your desire to streamline your dealers? Guess what, that can happen, but only in the Bankruptcy Court, the Car Czar never would have had that kind of Authority. 

Now, the other big news is the Senate Seat in Illinois that previously belonged to B. Hussein Obama, the President Elect. Apparently, Governor Blagojavichadude (The big reason I haven't blogged about this guy is his name is unpronounceable by humans, and should have been shortened to something far cooler a long time ago.) Governor B of Illinois apparently was inspired by the Palin put the plane on eBay story, and essentially offered the Senate Seat along the same manner. Now, he didn't put it on eBay, but he was essentially trying to auction it off. Of course, despite tons of recordings of his demanding good deals for the seat, he swears he's innocent. Innocent by what standard? You may not have kidnapped the Lindberg Baby, but let's be honest here B, you are a typical Chicago Politician who's continued the long line of Illinois Governors who are corrupt and caught. 

Apparently, if Washington is all hot and bothered to appoint someone Czar, they should appoint a Czar of Illinois, so we can finally have some faith that someone there isn't corrupt as hell. 

Auto Bailout: AKA Crap Sandwich 3.0

Representative Boenher called the Wall Street bailout that ended up costing us the taxpayer $850 Billion a crap sandwich. The second version that passed, well that was Crap Sandwich 2.0 so the auto bailout would be Crap Sandwich 3.0 right?

Now, let me get this straight. The costs of doing business in the United States and the costs of the Unions are making it almost twice as expensive for a company, any company, to produce a product. Then the overpaid Union thugs are telling us that we have to do this, or the economy will fall. Tell me why a bunch of people making $14 to $20 an hour should cough up free money to people making $73 an hour. 

From the NY Times article. 

The $73-an-hour figure comes from the car companies themselves. As part of their public relations strategy during labor negotiations, the companies put out various charts and reports explaining what they paid their workers. Wall Street analysts have done similar calculations.

The calculations show, accurately enough, that for every hour a unionized worker puts in, one of the Big Three really does spend about $73 on compensation. So the number isn’t made up. But it is the combination of three very different categories.

So tell me why the Union is a good thing for Americans? The reason that Obama has come out in support of using intimidation and strong arm tactics to scare people into signing a card for card check union elections? 

Unions cause the companies to spend additional money, money they don't have, and now the Government is going to bail out not the companies, but the Unions. 

I support the Workers, but I don't support the unions. I would demand that the Unions disband in order that we can better address the needs of the workers.

I've written my Senators, and my Representative. I've told them to vote no on the Union Bailout. Just say no to the support of thugs with Union Labels. 

Legislating Acceptable Morality

In this LA Times piece, you can read about the efforts of the Bush Administration to place the Medical Staff's morality into a legally protected category. The Lefties are all upset, and interestingly so, since they applaud the AMA proscribing Medical Personnel from participating in Executions, which are authorized in black and white in the Constitution. In California, they have even tried to make it a crime for a Medical Person to participate in an Execution.

So apparently, it is perfectly acceptable to legislate penalties for one legal process, but unacceptable to give Doctors a choice when it comes to choice.

Friends, can we be real for a moment? Those who argue that capital punishment which is covered in the Constituion is somehow wrong while Abortion which is not mentioned is somehow sacred and no one may object is asinine.

Whenever you look at Liberalism you find blatent hypocracy. If a Doctor is comfortable participating in an execution, let him or her. The Execution of a convicted criminal has been reviewed and considered over years by many Judges and others empowered to do so. Who reviews the sentance of death for the Fetus? What crime was it convicted of?

So some Doctors and other medical personnel are uncomfortable with that procedure. Now you are telling me we should punish Doctors who have a Moral Objection to a procedure that is supposedly hidden in the gray area at the edge of the shadow of the constitution, but we should punish those same Doctors who assist in a procedure that is clearly authorized by the Constitution?

Please look at this, and read what the Founders had to say about Capital Punishment. If due process of law was followed, it is Constitutioal.

Posse Comitatus

Imagine my surprise after posting my last entry on differences between the Military and the Police, when Monday brought this gem.



The military is prohibited from conducting Police type activity in the United States. It's called the Posse Comitatus Act.





Now after reading the full story at the Washington Post, I fully expected to find the Liberals all up in arms over this. A few were, most were hopeful that they could get President Bush out of office before he used these troops to declare himself king. There are a very few who do not like the idea of anyone, including President-Elect Obama in possession of this kind of power.

I do not like this, not one bit. First if we had an armed population, we wouldn't waste the time or money on a project like this. No matter how fast the military response was, the terrorists would be dead. Dealt with by the public.

Now I also don't like the Military training to be police. This can't help the war fighting skills, that kill the enemy I posted about yesterday. In my opinion, the Military is not suited for this kind of mission.

The argument about the threat of WMD is even more questionable. The truth is that there are troops with that training standing ready now. The Military maintains units on Defensive Readiness Forces Alert. I spent months on that alert at the 82nd Airborne. You can have a unit ready to go in four hours. So exactly why would you need a full Division of Military personnel prepared for a terrorist attack?

There were ten terrorists in Mumbai India. There were less than 20 on 9-11.

We don't need a quick reaction force of military as much as we need a population empowered and authorized to defend themselves by any means at hand.

-- Post From My iPhone