Magical incantations for auto industry bail out
10 December 2008 by Stardust
Christians begging their imaginary friend for all sorts of things is not unusual, but bringing automobiles to the altar is kind of bizarre. Why can Gob only see and hear things that are brought inside of a church? Church leaders are so into theatrics.
SUVs at altar, Detroit church prays for a bailout
And I agree with Obama, CEOs should go. If it’s that bad that they need a humongous government bailout, and if they are in need of laying off the little guys who make peanuts compared to the corporate leaders, then upper management should also be cut. And for those who are left, pay cuts, no bonuses and sacrifice for the good of the company they wish to keep afloat with our tax dollars.
Obama: Auto CEOs Should Go
The criticism of industry leaders deepened as negotiators for the White House and Congress narrowed their differences over a plan to extend roughly $15 billion in short-term loans to any Detroit automaker that needs it. Analysts say General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, in particular, are at risk for running out of money in the next few weeks, and that Ford Motor Co. (F, Fortune 500) may need help if the economy deteriorates further.
Democratic Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, whose state is ground zero for the battered industry, said he was confident an agreement would emerge within the next day.
Democratic leaders have said they hope to pass the measure this week. While Levin declined to predict its approval, support among rank-and-file lawmakers presumably would improve dramatically if both White House and Obama were to signal their backing once the legislation is complete.
“The last thing I want to see happen is for the auto industry to disappear, but I’m also concerned that we don’t put $10 billion or $20 billion or $30 billion or whatever billion dollars into an industry, and then, six months to a year later, they come back hat in hand and say, `Give me more,”‘ Obama said.
I agree with Obama, just handing over billions of dollars isn’t enough to save these ailing corporations, and it doesn’t seem like the executives in charge are doing enough to help the company as a whole, and making the changes necessary to turn these companies around to a positive direction.
“What we haven’t seen is a sense of urgency and the willingness to make tough decisions. And what we still see are executive compensation packages for the auto industry that are out of line compared to their competitors, their Japanese competitors, who are doing a lot better,” he said.
Asked whether the top executives should remain in the jobs, he said, “Here’s what I’ll say, that it may not be the same for all the companies. But what I think we have to put an end to is the head-in-the-sand approach to the auto industry that has been prevalent for decades now.”
Later, at the news conference, he appeared to temper his comments, saying that current management should be ousted if it doesn’t understand the urgent need to make changes in the industry.
10 December 2008, on 1:33 pm
The us auto co’s spent the last 10 years fighting against any kind of change.
You know what happens when a species can’t evolve to cope and adapt with it’s changing environment?
Yeah.
B-bye dinosaurs.
But they sure put on a good show don’t they? Will they be adding their new idols to the nativity scenes this year as well? Baby jebus drives a chevy, don’t you want one too?
Hey I know… why don’t they ask the moron church to threaten all it’s members if they don’t buy an american car this xmas? Or at least donate to the golden parachute of the CEO. After all it’s what the high holy whatchamafuck would want. Really.
LOL!
I vaguely recall being told by some obnoxious nun or other that material desires were ‘Evil’. Isn’t this kind of anti-jebus? Well I guess it’s been forever since I’ve looked at a babble. I suppose the new king douche expurgated version includes war for oil and excessive consumption as newly minted deeds of piety these days.
PS: Do these car-whisperer’s have permission to be AWOL from the ‘war on xmas’ ?? The horror!
10 December 2008, on 2:30 pm
My question is why doesn’t Congress make the banks loan the money they got from the bailout to the auto industry? Isn’t that what banks do?
10 December 2008, on 9:19 pm
I don’t understand why it is socialism when we want to help out people who need it, but when we engage in massive bailouts to repair ‘private’ industry it is good old-fashioned American capitalism.
AUM: would you want to risk any money in one of these companies at this point?
10 December 2008, on 11:27 pm
I remember learning in my highschool econ class that when a business is unable to turn a profit, for whatever reason, they go out of business. This is what makes the economy stronger. Weed out the weak. Seems cruel, but that’s how a “free market” works.
Detroit has made so many obvious errors over the past 30 YEARS, it amazes me that anyone DIDN’T see this coming. While they were putting their R and D into SUVs, the Japanese were making Civics and Corollas. While the Detroit CEOs were alloting themselves large bonuses and golden parachuttes, the Japanese CEOs were taking more modest compensations, and taking cuts before they cut workers when times were hard. When detroit was making piece of shit automolemons, for gawd knows what reason, Japanese automakers were developing cars that last, because consumers were tired of cars that became expensive, 3000 pound radios after 40,000 miles.
WTF?
I thought a free market meant voting with your dollars. I voted against American automakers by refusing to give them money for a piece of shit automolemon. Now they want the government to TAKE my money away from me to give to them, because they made piece of shit automolemons.
Again, WTF?
11 December 2008, on 2:04 am
Here we go!
What kind of a car does God drive?
A Plymouth: “In His Fury, He drove Adam and Eve from the Garden” (Gen. 3:24)
What kind of car did the Apostles drive?
A Honda: “They were all in one Accord” (Acts 2:1)
11 December 2008, on 12:38 pm
Thomas A for the WIN!