"Let them eat cake." (Marie Antoinette, of the breadless peasants)

This post is not so much satire as it is astonishment and disbelief.

1. The "big three" American automakers, GM, Ford, and Chrysler, are in deep trouble. Have been for years, for many reasons.

2. Seeing the Wall Street bailout, they are trying to jump on the bandwagon and are asking congress for $25 billion. Just because. Loss of jobs, and ancillary domino effect, you know.

3. They came to Washington yesterday (Tuesday) to testify before Congress on why they should get this money. All three CEOs were there, sitting side by side. Amazing. They each told Congress why they should get this bailout. Some of their points were valid. I assume they promised to be good stewards of this amazing amount of money if they get it. And they say they MUST get it.

So.... what is the astonishing and unbelievable part of this post? Other than the fact that they have been pissing away money like Niagara Falls for 50 years and mismanaging their businesses like a drunken sailor? Well...

1. They came to Congress crying "poor, poor", but they came in private jets. Individual private jets which are only one of several owned by their companies for their (and their families') convenience. They couldn't fly commercial, not even first class. And, God forbid, they couldn't drive one of the cars they make. 

All of these companies have been losing lots of dollars. Billions and billions of dollars. In return for this feat of losing money, each of these CEOs receives compensation of many millions of dollars each. Like in the neighborhood of $20 million a year. Just as a "thank you" for being such a bad manager.

4. We could BUY GM -  the whole company - lock stock and barrel - five times over for the same money we would be "lending" the "big three."  - $25 billion. Or so I've read. But who in their right mind would want to buy a company that is constantly on the verge of bankruptcy, and hasn't seen a profit in most of the current generation's lifetime?

Your Congress is at work. Be very afraid. Let's hope even these dead-brains won't loan these guys taxpayer money. Spend it on job retraining instead, please.

Oh, Please! PLEASE let us stay in Iraq! We'll do ANYTHING!

I see in the news today that Iraq is close to approving a pact which will allow the U.S. to stay in Iraq through 2011. Apparently they will let us stay if we agree not to have troops in the cities. We will still be free to die outside the cities. So that's cool.

Question: why  are we (the U.S. Government in the person of George W. Bush) fighting so hard to get this "agreement" approved? If  they don't sign it, then we come home at the end of this year. What is so bad about that?

At the very least, we shouldn't take action until our new president takes office. He may have less interest in staying in Iraq at all. Just let the current one expire and stop fighting except in self defense for a few weeks. It is possible that in the short interim, the Iraqi government may decide it is a good idea for America to stay and let them stay alive for awhile. I don't think we should, though.

In my opinion, this has long since turned into another Vietnam. If even the Iraqi government has to have it's arm twisted to "let" us stay, then why stay? I think we just screwed up a perfect chance to come home and let them fight it out themselves. Plus we also had to agree to let Iraq try our troops in their courts. I don't like that because it is still a war zone where civilians are getting killed by accident every day.

Welcome Aboard!

President-elect B.H. Obama, wasting no time in the face of the economic crisis, today selected as his new Secretary of the Treasury, the genial Bob Cratchit.

Rather than choosing someone who is good at handling money, the President-Elect said he "went with my heart on this one" and chose someone from the ranks of the common folk, his primary political base.

"I thought it was more important to send a message, to the people who voted for me, and to the misguided right, as well as to the rest of the world, both friends and foe alike, all of whom I will soon be speaking with on a personal one-on-one basis, just to get to know their special interests, that my administration will be a grass-roots operation from the top down, or the bottom up, just as I promised; or if I didn't promise that, it could be assumed by one and all that is surely what I meant."

Mr. Obama went on to say (we think) that he decided against choosing a person with banking experience, or even executive experience, because those kinds of people have often failed us in the past, and mostly are Republicans anyway.

The returned clothes fund of Sara Palin will be used to outfit Mr. Cratchit.

Good luck Bob Cratchit, and to all the assorted little Cratchits!

Lest we forget

Today is veterans's Day in the USA (Remembrance Day in Canada).

Today we honor those who serve, or have served in our Military.

Today we again pray for end to war.


WWII Memorial

Korean War Memorial

Vietnam Wall

Iraq

Semper Fidelis

Have you ever wondered why...

... A lot of the attacks on our freedoms seem to be coming from our own government?

A Sloth?

Government by its very nature is a close kin to the sloth: Slow moving, not too bright, and infested with parasites, generally sleeps 18 hours a day, and is virtually deaf. Like the sloth, government feeds on only one thing.

For the government this food is red tape.

New cabinet appointments begin

Wasting no time, President-Elect Barack Obama today announced his first cabinet appointee, good friend William "Bill" Ayers, as Secretary of Defense.

Asked what prompted the choice, the Chosen One shuffled his feet a bit and then mumbled, "Professor Ayers is familar with the Pentagon."

God bless America. 

The Loyal Opposition begins to close ranks. Hail To The Chief

Please welcome America's new First Family:

Sasha, Michelle, Barack, Malia.

Godspeed.

Almost over

As I write this, it is only about an hour and a half before the polls begin to close in the East. Soon we will begin to see the results of the real poll instead of the pretend polls that have represented various people's guesswork and predictions. Will it be an Obama landslide as most guess-polls have predicted? Will it be really close and go far into the night before the next president is known, as McCain has suggested?

Doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that the real non-guess poll is now finally underway. Good luck to both candidates. Whoever wins will need a lot of help.

But please don't overlook the race that is so much more important than the race for president. If the Dems gather the magic number of 60 in the Senate, there will no longer be any opposition voice in congress. That means so much more than who wins the title of president. And the way it looks now, that is very likely to happen.

Very interesting indeed.

Obama wins ...

... or so they are saying early on.

Polls say it's in the bag for Obama-Biden!

You'll shoot your eye out, McCain!"

Ho! Ho! Ho!

What's not to love?