Despite the top brass arriving with tin cups in hand while walking off thier private jets, if there is one industry that we should try to save it is the automobile industry. Obviously these guys have no sense of the realities of todays economy. Judging by the product lines they’ve been making they have no sense of the current marketplace. No wonder they head up companies that lose billions and are on the verge of bankruptcy.
Despite the clueless execs, can we afford to let this industry vanish from the US landscape? We’re already approved over 700 Billion dollars to bail out various Wal Street firms and they never made or created anything except a highly leveraged house of cards that is in the process of coming crashing down. Instead of bailing out “The Street”, those execs should have been thrown in jail for all the fraud they facilitated and the bare minimum amount of tax payer dollars provided to prevent a systemic collapse.
The auto industry in the US can survive and even thrive but there needs to be a hefty stick attached to the bailout carrot.
They need to start producing cars people actually want – smaller & fuel efficient.
They need to start producing cars that run on something besides oil or at least less of it.
Sure, oil is relatively cheap now but without a kick in the @ss, these guys will just take the money and continue business as usual.
The auto industry is one of the few vertebra left in the deteriorating backbone of the US.
The collateral damage from the dissapearance of the auto industry would be immense – auto workers, dealers, parts suppliers, and all the businesses that support them.
If we lose the auto industry, not only do we lose the auto industry but we lose the manufacturing capacity which could have serious consequences for national security should we ever need to ramp up quickly for any kind of a real war.
I think we got the right guy (Obama) in the White House. To bad the House & Senate couldn’t also have been completely replaced but it’s about time we started directing this bailout money to where it can do the most good and stop rewarding Paulsons’ parternes in crime on Wall Street.
It’s been a long, ugly presidential campaign. With just a few days to go, it looks like the headline of this article will be all over the news late in the evening on November 4th or early in the morning November 5th. If you believe the polls and think they are accurate as shown below, Obama would win the election even if he didn’t win Florida or Ohio but both of those states are still in play.
Barack Obama Set to Win 2008 Presidential Election
Who would have though Montana and North Carolina would be in play at this point? Have we as a country finally had enough of the Bush administration? Are we finally realizing that the current policies do much more harm that good?
Even at this point, anything is possible so while the polls are looking good for Obama, if you want him to win you need to GET OUT AND VOTE. Just do it! If you need to know where to vote, then go to vote411.org and find the nearest voting booth near you now.
Don’t take anything for granted on either side. Lets make this the election with the highest voter turnout ever.
Election 2008. It’s almost time. Plan to vote and vote for change, regardless of who you think will bring about change.
In what may be a little to little a little to late, John McCain picked up the all important endorsement of current vice president, sharp shooter and defender of freedom Dick Cheney. Over the years, Mr. Cheney has been a maverick in his own right knowing just the right time to go in to help other countries and defend the United States against non-agressive enemies. By doing this Cheney was able to see that US tax dollars would not be wasted on things like education and public infrastructure and would end up in his pockets and those of the companies he invested in or owned.
Knowing full well that any health insurance plan available to the general public would never touch someone who has had multiple heart attacks, he took the actions needed to ensure he would be able to afford adequate medical care and there would be fewer people alive to compete for the doctors who could keep him going. When asked about his brilliant strategies, Cheney justified his actions by stating:
“Given the state of the United States, the crumbling roads, the failing educational system and the number of people in this country with little or no access to health care, it is only right that we destroy the infrastructure of other countries and bring them down to our level.”
In the latest polls regarding the approval ratings of George W Bush that show his approval rating somewhere between 22% and 29% favorable and 67% and 72% unfavorable, this was a big endorsement for McCain. Said McCain:
“We’ll take anything we can get at this point. Even though I’ve tried to distance my campaign from the current administration, it is refreshing to know that I can still count on Dick at the end of the day. If the California voters knew I had Dick at the end of the day, maybe they’d be more likely to vote for me.
With a mere two and a half days left until the election and the CNN Electoral Map Calculator showing the McCain camp with a respectable 121 “safe” and 36 “leaning” electoral votes going his way for a total of 157 out of the 270 needed to win, McCain is confident that he will “get enough votes to beat the third party candidates”. McCain went on to say that he would consider opening up his homes to the “Joe the Plumbers” of the United States to live in until the current housing debacle is under control. “I understand the difficulty people in this country are having and it is only right to share my extra McMansions with “My Friends”".
When a reporter asked McCain if this would be a form of socailism, he pondered the question and pulled his casette player out of the drawer, rewound it and played the Sarah Palin stock answer to reporters questions:
“But ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economomy. um, uh…it’s got to be about job creation too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track so healthcare reform and reducing taxes and reigning in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans and trade and we’ve got to see trade as opportunity not as competitive scary thing but one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today we’ve got to look at that as more opportunity all those things under the umbrella of job creation, the bailout is a part of that.”
When asked how he will feel after the election on Tuesday, McCain said he will feel great to have made it through in good health, happy to have been able to have his photo taken with a cute hockey mom so many times and is looking forward to the risque 2009 calendar set to hit the stands for fundraising for the 2012 campaign, and happy be able to rely on Dick through good times and bad.
In yet another event that further demonstrates the “Maverick” qualities of John McCain, the Onion news network reports that John McCain was left on his campaign bus overnight. After a speech in Stroudsburg, PA, the presidential candidate was spotted staring out of a window on the bus. Two women noticed scratches on the window and let the senator out when he nodded affirmatively that he would like to be let out of the bus. It looks like governor Palin may have to add another item to her daily duties should the McCain/Palin ticket win the presidential election.
This just in – Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama for president! Colin Powell has always been a great leader, great military strategist and very level headed throughout his career. He served as secretary of state under previous Republican administrations.
Mr. Powell brings out a lot of great points about both candidates and their campaigns. The Meet The Press Video Clip is Below:
When Bokaw asked: “In all your years of public service, have you ever seen an incoming president face such daunting challenges?”
Powell replied: “No. I have seen more difficult times in our history. I think about the early ’70s when we were going through Watergate, Spiro Agnew, Nixon period, that was not a good time. But right now we’re also facing a very daunting period. And I think the number one issue the president’s going to have to deal with is the economy. That’s what the American people are worried about. And, frankly, it’s not just an American problem, it’s an international problem. We can see how all of these economies are now linked in this globalized system. And I think that’ll be number one. The president will also have to make decisions quickly as to how to deal with Iraq and Afghanistan. And also I think the president has to reach out to the world and show that there is a new president, a new administration that is looking forward to working with our friends and allies. And in my judgment, also willing to talk to people who we have not been willing to talk to before. Because this is a time for outreach.”
When asked about who he would vote for for president, Powell responded in part with this:
“In the case of Mr. McCain, I found that he was a little unsure as to deal with the economic problems that we were having and almost every day there was a different approach to the problem. And that concerned me, sensing that he didn’t have a complete grasp of the economic problems that we had. And I was also concerned at the selection of Governor Palin. She’s a very distinguished woman, and she’s to be admired; but at the same time, now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don’t believe she’s ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president. And so that raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Senator McCain made.”
Which seems to echo the sentiments of many of the voting electorate.
Powell goes on to state
“On the Obama side, I watched Mr. Obama and I watched him during this seven-week period. And he displayed a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge and an approach to looking at problems like this and picking a vice president that, I think, is ready to be president on day one. And also, in not just jumping in and changing every day, but showing intellectual vigor. I think that he has a, a definitive way of doing business that would serve us well. I also believe that on the Republican side over the last seven weeks, the approach of the Republican Party and Mr. McCain has become narrower and narrower. Mr. Obama, at the same time, has given us a more inclusive, broader reach into the needs and aspirations of our people. He’s crossing lines–ethnic lines, racial lines, generational lines. He’s thinking about all villages have values, all towns have values, not just small towns have values.”
Going back the McCain campaign, Powell states:
“And I’ve also been disappointed, frankly, by some of the approaches that Senator McCain has taken recently, or his campaign ads, on issues that are not really central to the problems that the American people are worried about. This Bill Ayers situation that’s been going on for weeks became something of a central point of the campaign. But Mr. McCain says that he’s a washed-out terrorist. Well, then, why do we keep talking about him? And why do we have these robocalls going on around the country trying to suggest that, because of this very, very limited relationship that Senator Obama has had with Mr. Ayers, somehow, Mr. Obama is tainted. What they’re trying to connect him to is some kind of terrorist feelings. And I think that’s inappropriate.”
Then Powell moves more on to the republican party:
“I would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that’s what we’d be looking at in a McCain administration. I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America.”
The Supreme Court is one of the biggest issues that has rarely been discussed in this election, potentially the single most important issue since the judges are appointed for life. The message coming from the McCain campaign is one of hate, fear, subtely painting all Muslems as terrorists. It is not anything close to an accurate message, not one that will serve the country well here in the US or in relations with other countries around the world. It is critical that appointments to the Surpeme Court not be of this mold and may be what we would get from a McCain presidency.
Powell goes on to state:
“So, when I look at all of this and I think back to my Army career, we’ve got two individuals, either one of them could be a good president. But which is the president that we need now? Which is the individual that serves the needs of the nation for the next period of time? And I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities–and we have to take that into account–as well as his substance–he has both style and substance–he has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president. I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming into the world–onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I’ll be voting for Senator Barack Obama.”
As usual, Powell comes at this with a balanced, informed intellectual perspective and based on that decides to vote for Barack Obama & Joe Biden in the 2009 presidential campaign. On November 4th, things start to change for the better.
