Site Presented By
Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Although my Mazda Protege5 is six years old, and normally, I would have bought a new car two years ago, I can not afford anything, today. I'd like a hybrid, but they're more expensive.
I've driven European, now Japanese, cars since 1981, because I wanted smaller, more reliable and efficient transportation. Noting the attitudes of the southern officials I am glad I can't afford a new car. I hope American manufacturers--if they survive--learn to design and produce "better" cars. I would, then, return to the buying habits of my father--GM, or in-laws--Chrysler. Oh, and if the economy rebounds.
We're talking about bailing out only 3 of the 10 companies that manufacture automobiles in the U.S. And we're also talking about 3 companies that make lavish legacy payments to retired workers. If the automakers went into bankruptcy, they and their unions would be forced to restructure in a disciplined manner. On the other hand, a pot of gold from the federal government, even managed by a "czar," would be a prescription for continuing as usual for the short term with certain "death" inevitable once the refill runs out.
The desire to break unions is not the only motive for the Southern senators' dogged opposition to saving the U. S. auto industry. It is only part of a plantation mentality that never died in the South and that continues to hate the industrial, Yankee North. To them, it is a good thing to drive middle class working people to poverty, so that the hereditary aristocracy can feel secure and in control. There is no real loyalty to the Nation, since the South still does regard itself as fully American.
Now that we have Southerners out of the executive branch, the Obama administration and Congress should break the hierarchical power of the remaining Stennis-mold southern senators.
How is this different from Nevada representatives taking a stance of Yucca Flats? Or California representatives taking a stance on coal and nuclear power? Isn't representing their constituencies kinda sorta their job?
There really must be some sort of god or maybe it is inbreeding ? How else are so many incompetent or is it incontinent people holding positions of power and authority? In good times there was an uneasy peace between management, the UAW and politicians .Now in tough times,the gloves are off and Southern Republicans appear to be afraid of losing something. The objectives of the GOP & the big 3 seem to be pretty close in most areas. Both want someone else to be tagged with the fault, save face and get things back to normal i.e. the UAW is the problem.
Unions are in no way perfect but neither are employers or politicians. When the dust settles and the studies are done, the value of the UAW's & its spin-offs contribution to the American GDP is likely to be far larger than currently estimated. It is too late to let the auto industry tank when there are things that can be done or at least tried. America, UAW and manufacturers can make good, salable cars if it wants to. If it dropped a few of its pet projects, such as the war on drugs or the war on aliens. Ceasing the continuous stream lists of people to be feared would also help. The biggest contribution may be giving up on being the the world's hall monitor
...it would agree to exchange some of its wages for equity in the Big Three. This would make union labor competitive with labor in "South Japan", while at the same motivating the workers to make their companies more competitive.
The failure of the auto bailout is a sign of things to come. A small minority of embittered, fascist Senators will use the filibuster to destroy the Obama presidency. They actually want a Depression, so they can blame it on the Democrats.
The solution is simple. Abolish the filibuster. The Senate must work in the interests of the people, not in the interests of a few. Demanding that Senate reform is the most important step progressives can take - and I can't understand why I'm the only person who is saying this.
The American people have spoke. We voted for change. Change must first begin in the Senate.
(We also need to get a new Senate majority leader.)
Well, looks like Bush will come to the rescue anyway and use TARP.
And why would Bush, and him alone among all of his party, go against destroying the unions, against the goal the Republicans have pursued for decades, just as they are about to succeed? Don't you smell a ruse?
It is much more likely that Republican strategists are aiming to use these circumstances to blame the failure of this last-ditch bailout attempt on their victims, to embarrass their political enemies and ensure that their victory over American wage slaves is complete.
This is what they do. It is what they have always done. Remember who you're talking about. All their policies have aimed to enrich the wealthy at the expense of everybody else. Notice how the hyper-wealthy have profited immensely even as the US economy declines, and how they have prided themselves on their expertise at creative destruction to their profit. Imagine how much more they will profit if the US economy collapses entirely and prostrates the US working class completely. A bankrupt people will not argue with its leaders.
Given the right catastrophe even national elections can be undone. Do not expect the Bushites to go gently into that good night, not when giving up power might leave them vulnerable to prosecution for their crimes.
The commenters characterizing this as a new "civil war" where "the north lost," or some kind of centuries old revenge on the part of the south, are really diminishing the horror of the civil war. Do you think everytime there's a disagreement between Berlin and Munich they play the Hitler card? Let's stop equivocating a bill failing in congress with the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and the slavery of hundreds of thousands more.
That being said, I can't help but feel that a lot of the rancor over this bill's defeat is about the south more than it is about the bill failing. Lots of "F*ck the South," etc. If the roles were reversed, and southern senators were begging for a bailout of tobacco farmers or something, there would a chorus of "No!"s. And many of you would be using the same statistics about the south getting more taxes than they pay as a reason not to bail them out.
So let's tone down the neo-regionalism and look at this for what it is: republicans refusing to bail out unionized companies. For some reason, most southern senators are republican, but most republican senators are not southern.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
