Big Three Automakers: Is Congress on the right track?

A week ago today I expressed my concern that Congress was considering bailing out of the "Big Three" automakers. http://truthbasedopinions.blogspot.com/2008/11/are-we-talking-about-bailing-out.html The Big Three were then invited to Washington D.C. for talks, apparently with no "preconditions".

The Big Three, GM's CEO Richard Wagoner, Chrysler's Robert Nardelli, and Ford's Allan Mullaly flew into Washington D.C., each in their own private corporate jet. The purpose of their visit was to ask Congress for a "loan" of billions of dollars to help bail them out of their present prediciment.

Then, surprise, surprise! Rep. Gary L. Ackerman (D-NY) actually started chiding the big three CEO for reckless spending. Ackerman said: “There’s a delicious irony in seeing private luxury jets flying into Washington, D.C., and people coming off of them with tin cups in their hands,” Ackerman said. “It’s almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high-hat and tuxedo… I mean, couldn't you all have downgraded to first class or jet-pooled or something to get here?”

Following the talks, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced in a news conference that they had given the “Big Three” – GM, Ford, and Chrysler a Dec. 2 deadline to provide Congress with information why they deserve a federal loan of $25 billion.

Once Congress received the proposed new business plan, Congress could vote by Dec. 8 to approve or disapprove the bailout.

We can only pray that Congress will do the right thing and vote to bail out the Big Three ONLY if the Big Three have come up with a new business model that will assure their success.

In my opinion, the Big Three are going to have to make some drastic changes to remain in business over the long term. At a minimum each of them will have to reduce the number of models that they build. They will also have to renegotiate their contracts with the labor unions.

The Big Three can learn much from the business models of the successful automobile makers in America.

Congress is on the right track if they will continue to demand accountability and reasonable assurances that the taxpayer money will be paid back. Congress owes the American people nothing less. And if Congress does vote to bail out the Big Three, Congress must provide the appropriate oversight to assure that the money is being used wisely and according to plan.

According to sources, GM seems to have gotten at least part of the message conveyed by Congress and have returned two of their corporate jets back to the leaser. It is also reported that they now turn off the escalators in the GM Corporate headquarters at 7:00 P.M., and that they have already implemented several other cost cutting measures. Now all they have to do is deal with the really difficult issues.

Bad Decisions Led to Financial Crisis

Are we talking about bailing out the automakers for making poor business decisions? For years the Detroit automakers have been giving in to Union demands and political pressures which has resulted in employees of the automakers industry getting unreasonable compensation packages.

The chickens have come home to roost. This was forseeable and avoidable and now the automakers want us to bail them out. Actually, what we would be doing is enabling more of the same bad business decisions that got them into this mess in the first place. Same thing with the financial institutions, which is another part of the untold rest of the story.. Automakers have become "financial institutions and have been just as guilty as the banks for making loans to subprime borrowers.

Capitalism made America the economic power that it became. Bailouts are anti- capitalism and are taking us closer to gross socialism. Because of the direction that we're headed we could become more socialist than Russia by the end of 2009.

California Fires: Are they avoidable?

Every year in California the headlines read: "Fire forces evacuation of thousands", "Millions of dollars worth of property lost in fire", "Two firemen die fighting fires", Scores injured in path of fire", Tragic loss of life due to fires".

The weight of responsibility for the extent of damage that these fires cause must be laid at the feet of organizations like the Sierra Club and the politicians that listen to them.

California needs a fire break system to avoid the devastation, injuries, loss of lives, and loss of properties. In the long run it would be much cheaper and it will provide revenue in the form of lumber.

Governor Arnold, please bring some sanity to California and get this done.

AZ, FL, and CA Have Spoken on Same Sex Marriage

Three more states have ammended their constitution to affirm that a "marriage" is between one man and one woman. Now the same sex marriage advocates are in a rage, do they have a right to be?

The "same sex marriage" advocate's argument could be used any number of people. Many a pedophile has said that they are "genetically predisposed" to wanting to have sex with children. Should we legalize pedophilia?

A case could be made that some people are more predisposed to act out violently. Should we legalize violence?

Others have claimed that they have no control over their desire to shoplift. Should we make shoplifting legal?

NAMBLA (North American Man Boy Love Association( has been trying for years to have sexual relations between men and boys legalized. Should we legalize man boy sexual relations?
It is absolutely amazing that it has had to come to the point where it was even necessary to have an ammendment to the California constitution to make same sex marriage illegal. For 150 years everyone in Arizona, California, and Florida already knew that marriage was between one man and one woman.

The GLBT community uses deceitful rhetoric in their desire to force everyone to accept deviant sexual behavior as normal. This is the hidden agenda behind the same sex marriage movement. They compare themselves with the "women's rights movement", or "racial equality movement". This is utter nonsense, and women and racial minorities should be deeply offended by those that are trying to force same sex marriage on society for claiming that they suffer the same plight.

Evidently society has been too tolerant concerning the activities of the GLBT community and now they want to take over the country and force everyone to accept homosexual marriage "whether they like it or not", as the Mayor of San Francisco put it. In my opinion the militant members of the GLBT community should be further ashamed of themselves for the dishonest promotion of their "sexuality".

Treatment of Bush: A Blight on America

Now that America has a new President Elect, I was wondering when we might start hearing about the disgraceful treatment of Bush. I voted for G.W., twice, even though I didn't agree with him when we went to war with Iraq. I figured that he and Congress must have known something that I didn't and that there was possibly a good reason that I wasn't aware of.

When the war started having its problems and no WMDs were found it didn't take long before the same people that voted for the war started throwing G.W. under the bus. The mainstream news media followed suit and it wasn't long before G.W. had the majority of America "hating" him. This treatment of a President in a time of war would have been considered treason 60 years ago. I find it troubling that some politicians, including Obama, Pelosi, Dodd, and Reid are wearing the badge of treason like it was a badge of honor.

I firmly believe that the Bush hating liberals and media bear a lot of the responsibility for why the Iraqi war has been so difficult to prosecute, and why our enemies have had reason to believe that they might be able to defeat us.

I think that all of this says much more about the corrupt politicians and media than it does G.W. Even John McCain, who I admire immensely, threw G.W. under the proberbial bus thinking that it would mean more votes. Personally, I think that this strategy played out against McCain.

Much to G.W.'s credit he has remained Presidential through it all. A lesser man couldn't have withstood the constant barage of hateful rhetoric against him from the politicians and the media.
As for the current economic crisis, G.W. has once again demonstrated that he believes in "the buck stops here" principle. Even though, our economic problems happened on the watch of a strongly Democratic Congress, which of course the media continues to fail to report this little bit of factual information.

G.W. has not been a perfect President but he does deserve our gratitude for his steadfastness under very trying circumstances and exacerbated by a corrupt press and even more corrupt politicians.

On behalf of many Americans, we thank you Mr. President for your selfless service to your country. God bless you and your family.

Preston Osborne
Cherry Valley, CA