Early word Thursday night was that the bailout
deal was dead due to the union's refusal to
accept pay-cuts down to the level of foreign
companies' workers in the U.S.
Before blaming the Repugnant Ones though,
I wonder if we can think back to the previous,
$750 billion bailout for the finance industry for a minute? Remember
how that one went down? Pelosi and Reid
worked closely with Bush officials to get
'er done while the majority of Republicans
voted against it.
And we know how that bailout worked. Like shit.
Come to think of it, at key turning points
during the Bush Regime's tenure, the Democrats
have worked closely with the President to
"get 'er done." Who can forget the photo
of
I wonder if we can think back to the previous, $750 billion bailout for the finance industry for a minute? Remember how that one went down? Pelosi and Reid worked closely with Bush officials to get 'er done while the majority of Republicans voted against it.
And we know how that bailout worked. Like shit.
Come to think of it, at key turning points during the Bush Regime's tenure, the Democrats have worked closely with the President to "get 'er done." Who can forget the photo of (ex-)Senator Daschle getting a one-arm hug from W after supporting the Iraq War authorization in order to get the issue out of the way before the 2002 elections -- which the Democrats lost anyway? And the PATRIOT Act, Military Commissions Act, all of the "emergency" war funding bills, etc., etc.
(ex-)Senator Daschle getting a one-arm hug
from W after supporting the Iraq War authorization
in order to get the issue out of the way before
the 2002 elections -- which the Democrats lost
anyway? And the PATRIOT Act, Military Commissions
Act, all of the "emergency" war funding bills,
etc., etc.
For some reason the Democrats cuddle up to Bush when they sense political advantage, however wrong-headed what they're doing may happen to be (almost by definition it is moronic if Bush is advocating it, especially when the rank and file Repugnants are against it.)
I'm sure the Repugnants are playing this hand for political reasons too. But for some reason they're tuned into what their constituents want, unlike the Democrats who continually do the opposite of what their constituents want. Geez, remember how after the 2006 elections Pelosi promised to end the Iraq War and did just the exact opposite? What a putz.
Average Americans know they're getting ripped off with these bailouts and I'll bet they distrust the Democrats on this issue. If the Demos keep mis-leading us during the Obama Regime I bet there is a huge turnaround in the 2010 elections. We know the Dems are weak and stupid crooks but they've been out of power for a while and that's why they defeated the R's in 2008. Give them two years to feast in the swill trough of D.C. and everyone will swiftly recall why the Democrats were thrown out of power the last time -- they STINK.
No argument from me. I got a painful kink in my neck from shaking my head yup.
Helen & Harry Highwater
Comment: (12/13/2008) Mister Chuckles and Helen: The Republicans' objections to auto industry bailouts are a cover for union-busting. They don't give a damn about the auto industry, the jobs it provides, or its impact on the economy. It's just another iteration of The Shock Doctrine -- there's an emergency, and they're using it to advance their 17th century agenda.
Comment: (12/16/2008) Annie, I would guess that we agree on the general outlines of Reality but are as yet in disagreement about certain of the Five W's (Why is Who doing What to Whom Where?)
A) The auto bailout agenda is being pushed by Crisis Mongers using the national emergency to obtain industry-specific taxpayer loot -- they've been totally doomed for a long time and just now we are told they have weeks to live unless they're given $30 billion (or whatever sum...)
B) Justin R. summarizes the Crisis Mongers in power now (Sunday night essay):
Excerpt: Did you, too, get that frisson of déjà vu when you first heard about the bank bailout and its rationale? If you don't hand over untold trillions of dollars in the next five minutes, the economy is going to explode. This was how the PATRIOT Act got rammed through Congress in record time, before anyone had a chance to even read the voluminous bill, surrendering what's left of our liberties and giving the president dictatorial powers: give us your freedom, or else the terrorists are going to blow the country up. This was also how the Bush administration and its neoconservative amen chorus whipped up war hysteria against Iraq: "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." Unless we invaded Iraq immediately, we were told, Saddam would unleash his legendary "weapons of mass destruction" - yes, even against the continental United States.
The methodology at work here might be called the Dershowitz Principle, after America's most famous theoretician of torture, who maintains that what qualifies as torture is defensible in an extreme situation. That is, when life suddenly morphs into a Jack Bauer-like scenario, in which the clock is ticking and you have to torture the evil terrorist or else they'll l blow up the White House, Capitol Hill, and the corner grocery for good measure.
It seems the clock is always ticking. We live in a state of perpetual "emergency," and every day we're faced with fresh ultimatums. I've had boyfriends like that. "If you don't do such-and-such immediately, I'm going to hold my breath until I turn blue - and then you'll be sorry." The first few times I fell for it; after all, I didn't want a medical emergency on my hands. Now that I'm wiser, though not all that old yet, my response is more measured: "Blue really isn't your color, you know."
C) No one is totally innocent. I have seen this time and again over the years as IT workers got outsourced at companies where I worked or had/worked as a consultant. I called these employees "lifers", with their asses superglued to their chairs they just tried to maintain their position knowing full well that their department/company was really f*d.
This goes on everywhere: people in Denial. They can be told and shown the Irrefutable Facts that something is Horribly Wrong and they will invent excuses about why it isn't so. There is nothing to be done except to be nice, wipe the dust off of your sandals and haul ass as far away from them as possible. (This even happened last Friday with a certain company I don't care to name -- I provided irrefutable facts and heard some B.S., and you know, in a month or year or five years people doing business with them will get f*d the hard way because of this very thing which was pointed out in detail. So.... the unions are not innocent bystanders and their industry is dead unless they change what they build, how they build it, how it is financed and who is the management -- in short, chapter 11 or 7 reorg time!)
P.S. I despise the Democrats and the Republicans with equal fervor. Now that the D's are back in power I'll be watching Fox News every night so I can hear some truth -- instead of some horsehockey served up by fantasists who know nothing. hahaha...
Comment: (12/17/2008)
Reasonable people can reasonably disagree about whether to bail out US automakers. I respect you and your opinions, Mr. Chuckles. But when you say you "despise the Democrats and the Republicans with equal fervor", with all due respect, that is the fundamental flaw in your thinking. Despising both Democrats and Republicans is wise, but despising them equally is not.
Democrats are often stupid, befuddled, gullible, short-sighted, unprincipled, spineless, maggoty, muddle-headed buffoons. Republicans are evil lying bastards. If you don't see the distinction, you could do something seriously silly like turning to Fox News for truth.
