Theodore's World

This isn't the government's job--bailing anyone out!
They should have to file bankruptcy and start anew, just like everyone else.
This is sad for America, that the government wants it's grubby little stinky hands in everything. Those greedy CEOs made their beds, now they should have to lie in them.
I should feel different because my brother works for GM, but he would feel the same about my company if they were like this.

The government.
They will create a problem and then ask you how to fix it without letting you fix it and then create more problems.

The cowboy
A cowboy named Conrad was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in Wyoming when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy, “If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?”

Conrad looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, “Sure. Why not?”

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer,connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet email on MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response. Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says, “You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.”

“That’s right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,” says Conrad.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then Conrad says to the young man, “Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?”
The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, “Okay, why not?”

“You’re a Congressman for the U.S. Government”, says Conrad.

“Wow! That’s correct,” says the yuppie, “but how did you guess that?”

“No guessing required.” answered the cowboy. “You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don’t know a thing about
cows…this is a herd of sheep.”

” Now give me back my #$&? dog.”

Talk about a ponzi scheme, this is a Union bailout pure and simple. the UAW has the Auto makers by the short and curlies. According to congress told the Automakers they have 3 months to come up with a Business plan. What happens if congress doesn't like their business plan ? Do they not give them the money. ?

Lets hope the senate stands firm. Love the magazine cover....thats funny...can almost hear the promo with it.

Mark is right. This is a bailout of the union. The UAW and other auto industry unions priced themselves out of the market. Let them fail. Non union auto makers have done well in America and The Big Three do well overseas where there are no unions.

The politicians want a bailout so they can nationalize the auto industry like they just nationalized banking. Also, politicians love to throw taxpayers' money around to purchase votes.

Will all this make me, the consumer buy from the big three? Hell no!!! I believe in buying American made too. This is all about buying up the UAW and their PAC. If anything it turns me off their products.

I saw the same disparity back in the early 70's, I had a '59 Nash Rambler that I'd patched up for the wife's use while overseas, I traded that up for a Cornbinder pickup when I got home. Had to do with the resources I had.

That Cornbinder would start everytime you parked it downhill with a rolling start.
When I got out of School I needed a reliable vehicle, I sought a domestic made one. GM had some that were in my price range as did Ford and Chrysler. All of them looked like they'd been assembled at the local wrecking yard by transient day labor. Body panels misaligned, doors misaligned, one even had a headliner that tended to fall out. I looked at foreign cars for workmanship and simplicity, I chose a Toyota, before I could scrape up the funding the big three lobbied for an import tax that passed, it tacked $600 on top of the Toyota - but the greedy bigshots in Detroit in turn hiked their base prices by the same amount too.
I bought the Toyota anyway, it was running great 200k+ miles later but I feared it would fall apart from rust. I got my first new Chevy, it couldn't take the rigors of hard cold. I don't own any foreign cars now but I've had to debug two Fords, one had the paint peel as soon as the warrantee ran out, the other had to have propshaft and wheel bearings replaced the first 4k miles and two Chrysler products soon after purchase, one had only 150 miles on it when it cratered, that drogue was a shop queen. I had suspension problems with the GM products, nice on the road but under load the springs failed. I still have a Ford PU that's 22 years old and a '94 Jeep GC, neither is for sale. I dread the idea of cleaning up the mess when buying a new vehicle, it's like debugging Microsoft products for Bill Gates.

Cheer up: http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2008/11/lemon.html

In typical misleading and mislabeling fashion, the bill going through Congress is not an Auto Bailout Bill. It is a UAW Bailout Bill. A few facts that puts this whole "bailout" story in perspective.

In 2007, Toyota sold 9.37 million vehicles.
In 2007, General Motors sold 9.37 million vehicles.
In 2007, Toyota made $17.1 billion.
In 2007, General Motors lost $38.7 billion.

The following is an email that I sent to Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama.

I OPPOSE any $25B, $11B, or other bailout for the UAW for their support of Barack Obama and the Democrats in the last election. Congress should stop lying to people calling it an auto industry bailout. This money will do nothing to change the mutual destructive bad management and suicidal UAW contracts at GM and Ford and only delay for maybe 6 months any Chapter 11 bankruptcy unless they change their ways on their own. The same goes for Chrysler too.

If Congress really wants to help poor and low income people to get back on their financial feet while also stimulating the economy and buying some time for GM and Ford to reinvent themselves then there is a better way. GM and Ford sold a little over 6 million cars and light trucks in 2007. Congress can provide long-term no interest loans of $4200 directly to 6 million people ($25B total) if they buy either GM or Ford cars or light trucks guarantying these US automobile companies and the UAW one full "2007" year of sales to get their business and benefit house in profitable order.

This is a win-win effort as it directly helps people in need with a substantial loan with favorable repayment conditions as the economy and their personal financial situation improves. It gives a guaranteed big boost in sales to the automobile industry for a full year to get it's house in order while stimulating related dependent economies and the national economy as a whole. Finally, the government will get the money back (as from the financial industry bailout) over time as these long term loans are paid back.

The country does not need one more Congressional mandated economic disaster forming a trifecta of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and GM/Ford/UAW.

Lynn, exactly.

"This is sad for America, that the government wants it's grubby little stinky hands in everything."

Pelosi is on a roll as well as Barney Frank and Reid, they are seeing a chance to get Government control over all kinds of businesses and it is wrong.

Bob A., LOL that is GREAT and really a good example of all of this. Thank you.

Mark, it sure is, the Unions are the ones just like you said.
None of these idiots in Congress have run or owned a business. They have no clue about any of this.grrrrr

James M. giggle, thank you . It reminded me of what they are doing.

I agree, I hope the Senate votes no on this.

Tom, I agree......"The politicians want a bailout so they can nationalize the auto industry like they just nationalized banking".....they need to be stopped. But it will take some very strong willed politician's saying no way to them. I hope that is what happens with the Senate Republicans and some dems joining in.

Jack, thanks for sharing about your various car experiences. That is amazing to me how you had to fix the things they had done wrong. I have heard of that happening.
I remember my Dad telling how the winters were one of the reasons he did not keep a car too many years.

Jack the Pelosi. hahahaa Good one!

Les,....." Auto Bailout Bill. It is a UAW Bailout Bill."....yes that sure is what it is.

Thanks for the information Les.

They just announced on FOX that it is 57% of the public against the loan/bailout and 34% I think they said it was for it. I wish that was the percentage of people that voted in the last election with the 57% being the one that voted for Palin. ( just a happy thought of how it could have been)

Does anybody remember this one?

I Am Changing My Name To Chrysler

by Tom Paxton

Oh, the price of gold is rising out of sight,

And the dollar is in sorry shape tonight.

What a dollar use to get us

Now won't get a head of lettuce,

No, the economic forecast isn't bright.

But amidst the clouds I spot a shining ray,

I begin to glimpse a new and better way.

I've devised a plan of action,

Worked it down to the last fraction,

And I'm going into action here today:

Cho: I am changing my name to Chrysler,

I am going down to Washington D.C.

I will tell some power broker,

"What you did for Iacocca

Would be perfectly acceptable to me."

I am changing my name to Chrysler,

I am leaving for that great receiving line.

When they hand a million grand out,

I'll be standing with my hand out,

Yes sir, I'll get mine.

When my creditors come screaming for their dough,

I'll be proud to tell them all where they can go.

They wonÕt have to yell and holler,

They'll be paid to the last dollar

Where the endless streams of money seem to flow.

I'll be glad to show them all what they must do.

ItÕs a matter of a simple form or two.

It's not just remuneration, itÕs a lib'ral education,

Makes you kind of glad that IÕm in debt to you.

Cho.

Since the first amphibian crawled out of the slime,

We've been struggling in an unrelenting climb.

We were hardly up and walking

Before money started talking,

And it's said that failure is an awful crime.

It's been that way a millenium or two;

Now it seems there is a different point of view.

If you're a corporate Titanic

And your failure is gigantic,

Down in Congress there's a safety net for you.

Cho

Trish, thank you. I don't remember it but I am really glad you posted it. Excellent!!